Pendleton, Indiana – A Pendleton, Indiana shooting Thursday night has left two police officers injured, a police dog dead, and killed two civilians (including the suspect).
The Star Press reports the suspect of an overnight shooting in Pendleton, Jim Kenneth Bailey, arrived at the home of his estranged wife, Claudia Bailey, wearing tactical battle gear and opened fire on the neighborhood with an assault rifle. One of Bailey’s bullets wound up fatally injuring John Neal Shull Jr., the owner of a local painting company, as he was sitting in a nearby truck.
Pendleton Police Chief Marc Farrer stated of the victim:
“This is a terrible tragedy for Pendleton. He’s a great guy, a good father. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Jim Kenneth Bailey then engaged in a shootout with police officers as they arrived on the scene, leaving two officers wounded and killing a police dog. The Pendleton shooting suspect was later found by police, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Police Chief Farrer went on to say:
“All my officers knew the subject who has been shot. I have two officers shot. We’re going on 14 to 16 hours here.”
According to the IndyStar, Bailey’s estranged wife was granted a temporary restraining order the day before, which forbade him from going near her. Court records from Madison County show that Claudia Bailey asked for the temporary restraining order after her husband threatened to hurt her, placed her in fear of physical harm, and stalked her.
Claudia wrote that she responded to her husband’s threat to sit outside her work and shoot everyone walking in by saying:
“I told him he doesn’t even know the people and that’s wrong, and he said he’d let God figure out who was good and bad.”
At this time, Indiana law has no requirement for the defendant in a protective order to surrender their firearms until the case goes to a hearing. Kerry Hyatt Blomquist, legal director of the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, stated that the Pendleton shooting should be seen as a reason to tighten Indiana’s lax gun laws. Police involved in the incident reported that Bailey had opened fire on officers with an assault rifle.
Kerry Hyatt Blomquist stated:
“I understand that who can predict who can and will become a mass murderer, but by God, we can stop giving them to the tools. Look at Columbine, look at Aurora, look at Pendleton, Indiana.”
Do you think that the Pendleton shooting, along with the recent shooting in Aurora, Colorado, show that our country is too relaxed when it comes to gun control?
a priivate owned gun would have stopped this.
A private owned gun caused this!
A gun to stop a gun? Why not just arm everybody with a tank and some grenades. We need gun control.