INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Two southern Indiana judges attending a judicial conference in Indiana’s capital were shot and wounded in downtown Indianapolis early Wednesday by someone who had argued with them in a restaurant’s parking lot, police said.
The two men were among five people shot and wounded in three separate shootings in Indianapolis during a three-hour span Wednesday.
The two wounded judges were identified as Clark County judges Bradley Jacobs and Andrew Adams, according to a statement from the Indiana Supreme Court. The statement also said Jacobs was hospitalized in critical but stable condition and Adams was in stable condition.
Deputy Chief Christopher L. Bailey of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told The Indianapolis Star that the two judges had visited one or more downtown bars before they were shot about 3:30 a.m. in the parking lot of a White Castle restaurant.
Police initially said Jacobs and Adams were shot following a disturbance at a nearby bar involving the judges that escalated into gunfire in the restaurant’s parking lot. But detectives later determined that the argument began in the parking lot before the judges were shot.
Police spokeswoman Officer Genae Cook said police have found no evidence to suggest they were targeted because they are judges. She said detectives believe their shootings were “an isolated incident” where the person who had argued with them in the parking lot opened fire and shot both men. Police did not say what the argument was about.
“There was a disturbance and then an unidentified person shot them,” Cook said Wednesday afternoon.
She said no arrests had been made in the judges’ shooting and police continue investigating.
Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush, who visited with Jacobs and Adams and their families after shooting, said in a statement that judges across Indiana “are heartbroken to learn of this violent act against our colleagues.”
She said the court offers it prayers for the “speedy recovery” of the judges, who were in Indianapolis for a judicial conference that began Wednesday.
Adams and Jacobs were elected in 2014 to the bench in Clark County, a county along the Ohio River that’s just north of Louisville, Kentucky.
Police said three other people were shot early Wednesday in Indianapolis in two separate shootings. One of those victims was in good condition, while the conditions of the two others were not immediately available.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.