By The Associated Press
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) -- Lake County prosecutors will ask a grand jury to decide whether to charge a man who shot an off-duty police officer who was reportedly playing a Halloween prank.
Cedar Lake resident Daniel Frederick said Tuesday he shot Richard Conaway because he had been duped into believing the off-duty St. John police corporal -- who was wearing a mask and carrying an ax -- was endangering children.
Conoway was treated and released from a Dyer hospital after Frederick shot him twice in the face with a .32 caliber handgun. He has not returned to duty since the Oct. 31 shooting. St. John police Capt. Bernie Johnsen said Conoway had been on medical leave for an unrelated medical condition at the time he was shot.
Frederick said he went home to get his gun after Conoway and other people at a party told him police were looking for a man who had been chasing children with an ax in the neighborhood about 25 miles south of Gary.
Frederick said he and two other men went into the woods with flashlights after partygoers told them they had seen a man in the woods matching the description of the supposed ax-wielding man.
He said he fired into the ground as the man, who was actually Conoway, approached the three men. When Conoway continued approaching and got to within 10 feet, Frederick shot him twice in the face.
“He had all night to plan, and I had a split second to make a decision that could have changed my life,” Frederick said.
Johnsen praised the decision to submit the case to a grand jury. He said accounts of the shooting had become confused in its aftermath.
“I am aware of other information that came up during the investigation that may cast this incident in a different light,” Johnsen said.
The grand jury likely will begin hearing testimony in the case in early 2004.