An Indiana State Police trooper was fired at on County Road 125 East in rural LaPorte County on Friday after stopping to check on a man and woman walking along the road, and the encounter set off a hunt that ended hours later with the suspect dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police say a passerby had flagged down the trooper about the pair before the trooper approached them and asked the man for identification.
According to CBS Chicago, the man and woman had reportedly approached a relative and acted suspiciously shortly before the trooper located them on the rural roadway. When the trooper asked for identification, the man pulled out a gun and fired shots at him, prompting the trooper to accelerate away from the scene. The trooper was not injured in the exchange, though the man's shots struck the patrol vehicle twice, and the man then fled on foot.
The shooting set off an immediate manhunt, with police converging on the area and a SWAT team eventually searching a nearby home. The woman who had been walking with the suspect fled into a nearby wooded area but later came out and surrendered to police, who took her into custody; she now faces pending charges, though her name and the specific charges have not been detailed. The man, whose name has not been released in connection with this incident, was ultimately found by the SWAT team hiding in the basement of the home before he was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
A Separate but Similar Case Near Michigan City
The LaPorte County case echoes an earlier shooting this year involving another Indiana State Police trooper in the same region. In that incident, Sgt. Justin Heflin was wounded at a Speedway gas station near Michigan City, according to ABC7 Chicago. Police said the suspect, later identified as 54-year-old Kevin W. Meyers of La Porte, Indiana, fired from inside a pickup truck and struck Heflin several times before the trooper returned fire, per Audacy.
Heflin was transported to a hospital in South Bend, underwent surgery and was last reported in stable condition, the outlet's report noted. Evidence markers at that scene identified at least 28 shell casings, and as many as 100 officers and SWAT units searched for Meyers before he was found dead in a wooded area near Westville, following a search that lasted several hours before his body was located shortly after 11 a.m. The LaPorte County coroner said an autopsy determined that Meyers had fatally shot himself in the chest, though an official ruling remained pending toxicology results, according to the Chicago Tribune's coverage carried by chicagotribune.com.
Timeline of Heflin Shooting
ABC7 Chicago's report described the pursuit on I-94 ending when the suspect stopped at the Speedway station around 5 a.m.
Meyers was booked in May and released a month later, according to ABC7 Chicago.
Part of a Troubling Pattern in Northwest Indiana
The Heflin shooting was described as the third time an officer had been shot in the line of duty in northwest Indiana since May 22, per ABC7 Chicago's report. LaPorte County Sheriff's Deputy Jon Samuelson was shot three times on May 22 at a Michigan City hospital and was recovering at a rehabilitation facility in Chicago, the Tribune reported. Days later, on May 26, an Indiana State Police trooper was shot in Hammond following a traffic stop on I-80/94.
Another comparable case unfolded in June 2025, when a shootout outside a Chesterton hotel left officer Nolan Mancera wounded but recovering, while suspect Joseph Gerber fatally shot himself in the head after being wounded, according to the same Tribune report. Whether the Friday shooting on County Road 125 East is connected to any broader pattern in the region has not been addressed by authorities, and many details of that case, including the identity of the man found dead in the basement, remain unreleased.
