The Associated Press
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) -- Ball State University officials announced changes to their training requirements for campus police Thursday, more than a month after an officer fatally shot an unarmed student.
Beginning immediately, new officers will be required to work with experienced officers for three months after they complete police-academy training, and no officer will patrol alone until completing the academy, university President Blaine Brownell said.
Rookie campus police officer Rob Duplain shot and killed Ball State junior Michael McKinney on Nov. 8.
“In contemplating how best to react to this tragedy, we must recognize that changes made today will neither take away the pain caused by this event nor guarantee that a similar situation could never arise in the future,” Brownell said. “Yet if there are steps we can take that might even possibly reduce the risk of such an event recurring, we must do so.”
McKinney, 21, had been heading home after spending time at a bar and tried to get into the wrong house. The resident called 911. Duplain was the first officer to respond.
Investigators said Duplain fired after McKinney lunged at him. McKinney’s family and friends said it would be out of character for McKinney to lunge at an officer. But tests showed McKinney’s blood-alcohol level was 0.343 percent -- more than four times the legal standard for drunken driving.
Duplain, with seven months on the job, had not attended a full training course similar to the 600 hours offered by the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield. The sessions typically have waiting lists, and Duplain was scheduled to begin classes in January.
After Duplain was hired April 28, he had 14 weeks of field training with the university police, Shupp said. He also finished a 40-hour basic firearms and law course offered by the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board.
Duplain has been suspended with pay. A Delaware County grand jury was expected to consider charges against him.