ELKHART, Ind. — A northern Indiana police officer won't face criminal charges for fatally shooting a man moments after the man shot and killed a 1-year-old boy during a domestic dispute, a prosecutor says.
Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker said Wednesday she had found that Elkhart city police Sgt. Mike Davis was justified when he shot and killed Lonnel Cephas Jr., 19, on Aug. 27.
The officer was responding to the fatal shooting of Danton Munoz, who was days shy of his second birthday, when he encountered Cephas in an alley and ordered him to show him his hands.
Becker said Cephas raised a gun toward his own head, then lowered it toward Davis, who opened fire with a rifle, killing Cephas.
Becker said officers found a handgun under Cephas' body and that a firearm examiner concluded that gun had fired the bullet which killed Munoz.
The toddler's shooting came after a dispute involving Cephas, his estranged 15-year-old girlfriend and the girl's mother, Becker said.
She said Cephas fired multiple shots at the girl and her mother. While none of those shots hit the girl or her mother, several bullets went through a wall and door, and one struck Munoz in the head.
