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Officer who shot, killed unarmed man testifies at merit board hearing

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — One of the officers who shot and killed Aaron Bailey took the witness stand Wednesday for a merit board hearing on whether he and another officer will lose their jobs. Bailey was an unarmed man shot and killed after he drove away from police during a west side traffic stop last summer. 

Officer Carlton Howard said IMPD trained him that action is always better than reaction. 

Howard’s lawyer asked him what he was thinking when Bailey drove off. 

“To me, at that point in time, ‘what is in that car that is worth having a felony warrant for?’” Howard replied. “What do you not want to be caught with so that, one day, when you would be caught, at least, whatever is in that car, hopefully won’t be there?”

Bailey crashed his car a short time later. Officers on scene said he would not obey their commands to put his hands up. Officer Howard said that based on his body movements, it appeared Bailey was reached for a weapon and then started to turn around to shoot.

Officer Howard recalled the moment he saw Bailey start to turn, “At that precise time I thought I was going to die. I thought I had already waited too long. Going back to that action vs. reaction, we were trained… if we wait until that gun comes up we are going to lose that battle. I was convinced that I was already going to be shot that night. I was more concerned that Officer Dinnsen also not be shot.”

IMPD Chief Bryan Roach recommended termination for officers Michael Dinnsen and Howard last fall, but they can’t be fired without a decision from the merit board. 

Police said Bailey refused to get out of his car and drove away during a traffic stop, eventually crashing into a tree. The officers said they saw him digging into the car’s center console and they thought he was reaching for a weapon. 

Investigators did not find a weapon. 

“We (Dinnsen and I) both believed there was a gun in that car,” Howard said. 

“Even after the shooting was over?” Howard’s lawyer, John Kautzman asked. 

“Yes,” Howard responded. “Because that’s what I thought when I shot. It wasn’t until I got home that I was notified there wasn’t a gun in the car. My wife ended up telling me.”

The officers’ lawyers argued they did not violate IMPD policy because they feared for their safety. 

Chief Roach, on the other hand, said the officers had other options and the situation did not call for deadly force. 

“I think they believed there was a forcible felony but I had no evidence of that,” Roach said. “The car did not continue to flee, they weren’t trying to back up. I don’t believe there was probable cause that their life was in danger.”

Howard said he did a background check on Bailey when he stopped him, and Bailey’s criminal history stood out to him. 

A detective in the case, Brent Hendricks, testified that Bailey’s female passenger told him the two had been using drugs, selling fake drugs and, before the chase, Bailey told her he was not going back to jail. 

Hendricks also said a confidential informant told him about five days after his initial investigation that someone threw a gun out of the car Bailey was in during the chase. 

Lawyers for IMPD argued that Hendricks’ overall reporting is “inaccurate” and “inconsistent.”

The detective said an IMPD internal affairs investigation found Dinnsen and Howard did not violate IMPD policy. 

Chief Roach said the department’s armed force policy states officers should use “good judgement.” He said the officers did not. 

Hearings will continue Thursday. 

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