The Associated Press
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) -- Ball State University officials said a rookie campus officer who shot and killed an unarmed student over the weekend was properly trained even though he had not yet attended the state’s police academy.
The family of 21-year-old Michael McKinney has questioned why Officer Robert Duplain shot the student after arriving at a near-campus home to investigate the report of a stranger pounding on a back door.
Duplain, with seven months on the job, was on patrol by himself at the time of the 3:30 a.m. Saturday call, police said.
He had undergone 14 weeks of field training with the university police and had completed a 40-hour basic firearms and law course, which allowed him to serve as an armed officer under state law, Ball State spokeswoman Heather Shupp said.
Duplain was scheduled to begin classes in January at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield for its 600-hour training program.
Shupp said university officials and campus Police Chief Gene Burton believed Duplain was qualified for his assignment.
“The chief has expressed that the training (Duplain) received is consistent with what other law enforcement officers receive in other places,” Shupp said. “If somebody were to really look at the training, they’d find it is adequate and sufficient for an officer to begin working on his own or her own.”
About one-third of Indiana’s police departments are able to immediately send new hires to an academy, said Scott Mellinger, executive director of the state’s academy. He said smaller departments with staffing shortages often do not have the ability to leave a position vacant for three months while a rookie takes those classes.
Ball State’s police department has a policy urging officers to take other steps before resorting to deadly force.
The department, however, does not have any weapons similar to the electric stun guns owned by the Muncie Police Department.
Duplain also was not carrying pepper spray as he was not trained in its use, said Burton, the campus police chief.
“He would not be allowed to carry that until he was certified,” Burton said. Asked why Duplain could carry a gun but not chemical spray, Burton said, “They’re trained to carry firearms is the distinction there.”
A witness to the shooting said McKinney lunged at the officer, who fired four shots after yelling at him to stop.
Tim McKinney said from talking with his son’s friends, he believed his son had mistaken the house he was at for that of a friend’s after a night at the bars near campus.
The Muncie Police Department has been investigating the shooting and was expected to submit its report on the shooting to the county prosecutor’s office next week. Toxicology results from an autopsy on McKinney, however, are not expected for up to six weeks.