HENDRICKS COUNTY — Two men have been charged in connection with the incident that killed Indiana State Police Trooper Aaron Smith on Wednesday.
Eddie Jones Jr., 18, from Sikeston, Missouri is charged with murder after the stolen 2016 Chevrolet Traverse he was driving struck Smith on Ronald Reagan Parkway in Hendricks County.
At the time of the incident, Trooper Smith was attempting to throw stop spikes, according to ISP.
READ MORE | Fallen ISP trooper had history of community service
DeMareon Curry, 19, also of Sikeston, Missouri is charged with auto theft.
The pair appeared in court for their initial hearings on Monday, July 3.
A 15-year-old female, who has previously been reported missing from Missouri was also in the car. She has not been charged with a crime, according to ISP.
The chase, started on the southwest side of Indianapolis Wednesday night and ended here on Ronald Reagan Parkway.
ISP says Smith's death is a huge loss.
"We're just still reeling from the sudden loss of passing of trooper smith out there, doing the job trying to protect the citizens of the state of Indiana and this unfortunate circumstance came upon," Said Sr. Trooper Nick Klingkammer.
Less than four months ago, Master Trooper James Bailey was killed while also deploying stop sticks during a pursuit.
It happened near Fort Wayne.
"Both of these men serve their communities to the best of their abilities and it's a shame," said ISP Sgt. Brian Walker.
ISP says these cases are tragedies, but says if there's any opportunity during a pursuit to use the tire deflation devices it will in hopes to protect the public.
All troopers have them.
"So it's it's just a question of trying to anticipate where that vehicle is going to be, how fast they're traveling, how quickly if it's a multi agency, pursue how could we get the information and their direction to safely deploy those sticks," said Klingkammer.
ISP says chasing suspects in a pursuit are the most dangerous situations troopers can be in.
"They may see us ahead of time. They're gonna swerve they're gonna try to avoid those stops thinks they may stop. They may run them over they may even attempt to run a trooper down. Again, we just don't know," said Klingkammer.
"But our troopers are trained every year to employ this deescalation tactic with the stop sticks. We cannot control the actions of the violator that we're pursuing and oftentimes, that's where things go wrong," said Walker.
Along with training, WRTV asked what policies are in place before deploying the stop sticks.
"So, our policy is, is that we want to be in a safe location, we don't want to endanger ourselves anymore," said Klingkammer.
It's having conversations with fellow troopers mourning the loss of their friends.
"We deescalate, we have a gathering, and we talk through it and we say, okay, what worked here? What didn't work? What can we improve on," said Klingkammer.
As for Trooper Smith, the agency plans to honor his selflessness and forever remember him as a hero.
"We're sad and we are heartbroken by this loss. We won't forget Trooper Smith, we will honor him. And we will persevere and we'll carry on by doing what he would be doing and being out there for the public," said Klingkammer.
