By RICK YENCER
Indianapolis Star
MUNCIE, Ind. — A veteran Muncie police officer has been placed on leave, accused of battery with a deadly weapon, after he struck the friend of his daughter in the head with a gun.
Jeff Leist, 52, was not initially certain whether he had shot 24-year-old Robert D. McCallum, who the off-duty officer found with his daughter, Casey, 26, in the bedroom of her south Muncie mobile home at 6:35 a.m. Sunday, according to 911 dispatch tapes.
“Some guy was in the house with her,” Leist told the dispatcher. “I got him up and hit him in the head with my gun and my gun went off.”
When the dispatcher asked whether the victim had been shot, Leist could not tell, adding that the man was bleeding.
McCallum was not shot, but suffered a large cut to the forehead, requiring multiple stitches, according to a preliminary police report. The incident happened in the 3000 block of West Brookfield Drive in a mobile home park off Memorial Drive.
The gun -- a .40 caliber Glock, Leist’s Muncie Police Department service weapon -- fired one round into a bedroom wall.
Police Chief Joe Winkle said Tuesday that Leist, a 28-year MPD veteran, had been placed on administrative leave, with pay, pending the outcome of a criminal investigation. The gun was being held as evidence.
“It was a case of a father who was very angry and worried about his daughter,” Winkle said.
Darwin McCallum, Robert’s uncle, said Leist had no right to strike his nephew with his gun, saying the police officer has also cursed at his nephew, telling him to get out.
“They are just friends,” the older McCallum said of his nephew’s relationship with Casey Leist.
Lisa Young, Robert McCallum’s mother, also said there was no justification for officer Leist’s reaction.
She had talked to Winkle and said Leist was upset because his daughter was late for work on Sunday morning.
The Muncie woman further questioned Leist’s motivation.
“I am saying because he saw that my son was black, he even got madder,” Young said.
Police, who investigated the incident as a crime, found only one difference in statements given by Leist and McCallum.
Leist claimed that McCallum, who was sitting on the bed with his daughter, got up in a threatening manner, Winkle said.
McCallum told police he got up to get his shoes, after Leist said, “Get up and get the ---- out,” according to the police report.
Neither Leist or McCallum mentioned race as a motivation for the attack, according to police reports. McCallum is black and the Leists are white.
McCallum said he was asleep in bed with Casey Leist when one of Leist’s friends came to the door and said, “Casey, your dad is here,” according to the police report. Both were clothed when Leist came into the bedroom, Winkle said.
Leist told dispatchers, according to 911 tapes, that he came to his daughter’s mobile home because he could not get her to respond to telephone calls after learning she was late for work.
McCallum said Leist pointed the gun at him and hit him with it after telling him to get out, according to the report, and the gun went off. McCallum said he watched Leist pick up a telephone and call for police and an ambulance, but the officer did not talk to him further.
Leist was not initially arrested, and the case will be turned over to Delaware County Prosecutor Mark McKinney, who will determine what charges, if any, should be filed.
Leist -- who has most recently overseen the MPD property room -- has never before been the target of disciplinary action in nearly three decades as a Muncie police officer, Winkle said. Leist also worked uniform details and at neighborhood COP shops before assigned as an evidence technician.
Copyright 2007 Indianapolis Star
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