INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indianapolis police chief says a sergeant on administrative leave used someone else’s car to break through police surveillance and fatally shoot his ex-wife and himself.
Chief Rick Hite says Sgt. Ryan Anders broke in a back door of Officer Kimberlee Carmack’s far west side home Thursday evening before shooting both Carmack and himself.
Both officers were on administrative leave during an internal police investigation of what Hite on Friday called mutual issues between them.
Carmack was a 20-year veteran of the department. Anders had been on the police force for nine years and was promoted to sergeant in 2011.
They divorced last year.
An internal tip on Feb. 18 spurred the investigation, Hite said. Both told stories that led the department to put them on administrative leave during the investigation and confiscate their police weapons. Spokesman Sgt. Kendale Adams said Carmack had access to a safe house.
Hite said preliminary results of the internal investigation into the allegations were given to the Marion County prosecutor’s office on April 1, and a hearing was set for April 29.
Both were given access to a police wellness program and employee assistance. Carmack was assigned a domestic violence advocate.
Electronic surveillance was used to track Anders’ location, and police checked-in daily with both Anders and Carmack. Hite said Carmack later decided to leave the safe house against advice from the department.
A protective order against Anders took effect March 31. Hite said he eluded police surveillance using another person’s car to drive where Carmack was staying.
“There are times when we as an agency do due diligence of making sure people are safe,” Hite said. “But if someone is determined to carry out a particularly violent crime … these things happen.”
The apparent murder-suicide rocked the Indianapolis police force, Hite said. Carmack’s son is an officer, and Anders was the son of a retired city police officer.
The city’s Fraternal Order of Police opened its headquarters Thursday night to offer counseling to officers.
“Sometimes we forget police are not robots,” Hite said. “We’re people, too.”
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