NORTH VERNON — Police officers arrested an armed man who allegedly threatened them in the parking lot of the North Vernon police station on Tuesday evening, a department spokesman said.
“It’s very worrisome to us as an agency,” NVPD Sgt. Andrew Richmond said of Tuesday night’s events. “It kind of had all the earmarks of what could have been an ambush on one of our officers in the parking lot.”
Steven Strickland, 57, of the 800 block of Hoosier Street in North Vernon, was arrested Tuesday night and booked into the Jennings County Jail early Wednesday on preliminarily charges of intimidation with a deadly weapon, criminal recklessness with a firearm, resisting a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct and public intoxication. He remained held in the Jennings County Jail on $1,055 bond on Thursday.
Richmond said Strickland, who lives just a few blocks from the police station, was observed in view of video surveillance cameras at the NVPD parking lot beginning around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. He remained there for almost an hour, walking around the parking lot and looking inside parked police cars.
“At that time we didn’t know he had two firearms on him,” Richmond said.
Officers made contact with Strickland at about 9:27 p.m. Tuesday, when officer Adam Jackson arrived at the station and began talking with Strickland.
Strickland told police he needed to report something about “some ongoing feud with a neighbor,” Richmond said. When police asked him why he hadn’t called them to his home to make a report, Richmond said Strickland “didn’t really have a clear answer,” and his behavior became more concerning.
Believing that Strickland was in “some phase of a mental illness cycle,” Jackson called for an ambulance, Richmond said.
Shortly thereafter, officers Adam Driver and Austin Grunden also arrived at the station, and Strickland became increasingly agitated. Richmond said Strickland also made concerning statements after being asked if he was armed, and he continued to place his hands in his pockets and refused officers’ orders to keep his hands where officers could see them.
Before the ambulance could arrive, officers determined they needed to physically restrain Strickland out of concern for their safety. “Almost immediately after they put hands on him, they could feel the outline of a gun in his pocket,” Richmond said.
During a physical struggle with officers, Strickland “started verbalizing he was going to shoot,” Richmond said. “He did verbalize he was going to discharge a firearm.”
Officers were able to restrain and disarm Strickland, who Richmond said later admitted to using methamphetamine earlier in the day. Strickland was transported by ambulance to a hospital before he was cleared for booking into the Jennings County Jail on Wednesday morning.
According to online court records, Richmond will have an initial hearing in Jennings Circuit Court on Thursday. No lawyer had entered an appearance to defend him as of Thursday afternoon.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
