Special prosecutor to investigate deadly officer-involved shooting
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate an officer-involved shooting in August left a suspect dead.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears requested the special prosecutor be appointed to the case on Friday.
The officer-involved shooting happened August 3. Deshon Downing died after being shot by an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer.
According to police, Downing, 45, of Indianapolis, was a passenger in a van that was pulled over for a traffic stop around 8:15 p.m. that Friday by East District Flex Team officers who were in the area of 42nd Street and Brentwood Drive conducting surveillance on criminal activity.
During the course of the traffic stop, the witnessing officers said the passenger, Downing, produced a gun and officers shot him, killing him.
A motion to appoint a special prosecutor was filed Friday, Mears made the request “in order to avoid an appearance of impropriety.”
Mears said he did not want his recent transition into his new role as Marion County Prosecutor to delay the investigation.
“Immediately following being elected Prosecutor, I began to reach out to community stakeholders regarding the prosecutor’s role in officer-involved fatality investigations in Marion County,” Mears said. “Upon completion of these discussions, I plan to implement a new policy and standard procedure regarding the handling of these investigations going forward.”
Mears was appointed Marion County Prosecutor October 5 after his predecessor, Terry Curry, stepped down to focus on his own health.
