INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A man charged Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a police officer in Indianapolis was dangling upside down in his overturned car following a crash when he suddenly became agitated as the officer tried to help him and opened fire, striking the officer 11 times, according to court documents.
Jason D. Brown, 28, was charged Tuesday with one felony count of murder in the July 27 slaying of Southport police Lt. Aaron Allan. He also faces a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. Authorities haven’t disclosed a possible motive in the killing.
But a probable cause affidavit filed with the charges states that other officers and witnesses said Allan approached the overturned car, stuck his head inside and told Brown “to be calm and that help was on the way.” The Indianapolis man became “hysterical,” it states, before allegedly grabbing a handgun and opening fire, shooting Allan 11 times, including in the heart.
A man who was a passenger in Brown’s car told officers he and Brown had just left a gas station when Brown inexplicably began driving at a high rate of speed, the affidavit states. Brown then began maneuvering around cars when his vehicle drove over a median, struck a curb and overturned in the yard in front of a home, with Brown hanging upside down inside, secured by his seatbelt.
The passenger was outside the overturned car, sitting on the grass, when the shooting occurred.
A nurse who stopped to help told officers that she told Brown not to move because he could further injure himself. She said that Brown “became very agitated and belligerent and began cussing” shortly before she heard several gunshots ring out.
Officers later found 13 baggies of suspected marijuana inside Brown’s car, according to the affidavit.
Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said in a statement Tuesday that Allan’s death was “a tragic loss for the community.”
Allan, a 38-year-old father of two, was a six-year veteran of the police department in Southport, an enclave on Indianapolis’ south side and he had nearly 20 years of law enforcement experience. His funeral is scheduled for Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis.
Brown was hospitalized after two other officers opened fire on him following Allan’s shooting. He suffered gunshot wounds to his face, left arm and right clavicle and remains hospitalized. He’s scheduled for a Thursday initial court hearing on the charges.
A judge has ordered him held without bond. Court records do not list an attorney for Brown.
Brown doesn’t have an Indiana criminal record of violence. His only previous criminal conviction stems from a 2013 misdemeanor marijuana possession arrest in Hendricks County, just west of Indianapolis, for which he was sentenced to 30 days in jail, according to a statewide online courts database.
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