IMPD officer dies after alley gun battle
For the second time in less than a year top Indianapolis officials gathered at a hospital to make a grim announcement: a police officer had been slain in a gun battle.
With voices cracking and anger seething, Mayor Greg Ballard, Public Safety Director Troy Riggs and Police Chief Rick Hite said 21-year veteran patrolman Perry Renn had been shot and killed in an Eastside alley.
"Tonight we are here because we have lost one of our own," Hite said. "Perry Renn was a very fine and courageous officer."
Renn and two other officers responded to a report of shots fired at 34th Street and Forest Manor Avenue at 9:23 p.m. When they arrived, police said, the officers encountered Major Davis, Jr., 25, who was brandishing an assault rifle. The police and Davis exchanged gunfire for three to five minutes. Davis was struck and critically wounded.
Both he and Renn were rushed to Eskenazi Hospital, where Renn died at 9:58 p.m. and Davis was in critical condition. The other two officers at the scene were uninjured. Davis, who underwent surgery, faces a preliminary charge of murder.
The gunfire capped one of the most violent days in recent memory. Earlier, police brass had gathered in Broad Ripple, where seven people were shot and wounded, one critically, after two men opened fire on each other during late-night Fourth of July celebrations. In that incident police with first aid kits rushed into the chaos and attended to the wounded.
Hite noted the irony.
"Our officers less than 24 hours ago were attending to the wounded citizens of this city," Hite said, shaking his head. "What are we going to do about people in the community who … welcome us with assault weapons when we are sending out officers who are trying to protect them?"
The Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Rick Snyder said Renn was "heroic," not just last night, but his whole career.
"For 20 years he did his job for the citizens and for the city," Snyder said. "He put on a badge and went to work knowing the risks. Unfortunately, he is not going home tonight and a family is ruined."
Riggs said Renn was the eighth officer to be shot in 1 ½ years another 22 have been shot at
"The officer was attacked tonight but the city of Indianapolis was also attacked tonight," he said. "He laid down his life for the citizens that he served."
"This is a time to grieve and we want to send our hearts out for the family of Officer Renn," said Ballard, who was battling laryngitis.
City-County Councilor Ben Hunter, a former Indianapolis police officer, said he briefly worked with Renn.
"I didn't know him well but he had a great reputation as a courageous officer, so I knew about him," Hunter said.
Hunter said the situation Renn found himself in was routine on the rough Eastside.
"These types of runs happen so often and it makes you realize we are only inches away from tragedy," Hunter said. "You know the possibility is there, but everytime it happens it is surreal and it kicks you in the gut."
The last IMPD officer killed in the line of duty was Rod Bradway.
Bradway, a five-year veteran of the department, was fatally shot Sept. 20 by a man holding a woman hostage. Moments later, a second officer killed the man. The woman, as well as her child, was uninjured.
Just over a month ago, another IMPD officer was wounded in a gun battle with a suspect.
Officer Greg Milburn was spared serious injury because the rounds hit his bullet-resistant vest on May 30.
Milburn arrived at a home in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood just moments after a suspect had killed two women. He shot and killed Quintico Goolsby, 36, outside the house in the 2600 block of North Dearborn Street, police said.