Fort Wayne, Indiana: Man Dead After Officer-Involved Shooting on Elmdale Drive During Warrant Service

A man died Tuesday morning in an officer-involved shooting on Elmdale Drive in southeast Fort Wayne, according to the Fort Wayne Police Department and local station WPTA.

Police said the shooting happened at about 7:20 a.m. in the 3100 block of Elmdale Drive, near Hessen Cassel Road and East Paulding Road. In a short statement released shortly before 8 a.m., the department said the scene was secure, medical aid had been requested for the person involved, and more information would be released as it was confirmed.

A warrant served an hour earlier

WPTA reported that officers had gone to the block to serve a warrant. The department activity log shows a warrant served in the 3100 block of Elmdale Drive just after 6:30 a.m., about fifty minutes before the shooting. WPTA reported that the man is alleged to have opened fire on officers. Police have not confirmed that account in their own statement, and they have not said what the warrant was for.

The man died at the scene, WPTA reported. Police gave the man medical attention after the shooting, according to the report of the department statement. The first statement reported no officer injury, and police did not say in it whether any officer was hurt.

What police have not released

By late Tuesday morning, police had not released the man's name or age, the reason for the warrant, or how many officers fired their weapons. The department also had not said in its own words whether the man was armed. The allegation that he fired first comes from WPTA's reporting, not from the police statement, and it has not been tested against any other account of the morning.

Names in Fort Wayne police shootings are usually released by the Allen County Coroner's Office after family members are told. No name had been released in this case by the time of this report.

The investigation

The police department said its investigation is active and that additional information will be released as it is confirmed and as the investigative process allows. In the city's most recent police shooting before Tuesday, on Oct. 12 on Chadwick Drive, the department's Homicide Unit and Crime Scene Unit investigated while Indiana State Police detectives ran a separate parallel investigation, with the findings going to the Allen County Prosecutor's Office for review, WPTA reported at the time.

That October case began with a call about a man in a mental health crisis on the city's south side. Tuesday's case began differently, with a planned warrant service in the early morning. What happened in the fifty minutes between the warrant service and the shooting is the central question investigators now have to answer.

Police said the scene on Elmdale Drive was secure on Tuesday morning, and the first statement gave no word of any wider threat to the neighborhood.