By SUZANNAH COUCH and JULIE MCCLURE
COLUMBUS — The family of a Brown County man who was killed by a SWAT sniper after a five-hour standoff in a southwestern Bartholomew County farm field on March 10 said he would have surrendered if allowed one phone call to his wife.
Brenda Douglas, the mother of Martin Louis Douglas Jr., 30, of northern Brown County, said her son had never hurt anyone in his life and was not a bad person.
But within the last six weeks of his life, he had become addicted to methamphetamine, which she believes was the main reason for his actions in the police pursuit from Brown County to Bartholomew County, and a contributing factor to why he did not surrender as SWAT team members asked.
His mother said she followed her son, who was known as Marty, as he fled from police just before noon, after a family member called officers to say he was suicidal and had weapons in his truck.
She was at the scene near the Deaver Road field during the standoff when Marty was shot and killed by the SWAT team, after they said he moved to the bed of his truck to get an AR-15 rifle.
His mother said her son had two handguns and the AR-15 in the truck when he was being pursued by Indiana State Police, Bartholomew County sheriff’s deputies and Columbus police.
Douglas was under the influence of methamphetamine when the pursuit and standoff occurred, his mother said.
“He hadn’t been to bed for two weeks — he was tired — but he kept smoking meth,” his mother said. She believes he was completely under the influence of the drug when police tried to stop him, and that prior interactions with police might have had some influence on his responses to them.
Around 11:40 a.m. March 10, Brown County authorities contacted neighboring agencies and requested officers be on the lookout for Douglas.
Authorities reported that Douglas was despondent and could be armed, according to an Indiana State Police news release. Douglas was reportedly driving his maroon Ford pickup east toward Bartholomew County and possibly intended to harm one or more acquaintances.
Brown County Sheriff Scott Southerland said last week that his department received a request to do a welfare check on Douglas at around 11:15 a.m. His sister, Dorothy Scott, said that call came from her because she was concerned about some things he had said.
While officers were on their way to do the check, dispatch received another call less than 10 minutes later saying Douglas was driving south on State Road 135 North. Then another call came in less than 10 minutes later saying Douglas was heading to Columbus.
“We had everyone out looking for him and we did not find him,” Southerland said.
“The next thing we heard he was eastbound on (State Road) 46. All of our people were up on 135, so we called Bartholomew County and passed the information onto them.”
At 11:33 a.m., dispatch told officers that a relative was driving behind Douglas and that the relative said he was driving 120 mph. When Douglas passed Nelson Ridge Road at 11:40 a.m. he was driving 90 mph, according to dispatch notes.
An officer with the Columbus Police Department soon spotted Douglas’ truck near County Road 450 South and County Road 300 West in Bartholomew County and attempted to stop the vehicle; however, Douglas refused to stop and fled, state police said.
Other officers soon joined in the pursuit, including troopers from the Indiana State Police Versailles Post and the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department. The pursuit continued on roads in southwest Bartholomew County and northern Jackson County, where Jackson County deputies also joined in the pursuit.
Douglas continued driving erratically and at high speeds and had successfully avoided tire deflation devices placed in an attempt to stop his truck. The pursuit continued toward County Road 300 West and State Road 58 south of Columbus, where the truck eventually struck a tire deflation device, state police said.
Douglas then stopped in the road and fired approximately 15 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle at pursuing officers. Officers returned fire.
Investigators believe at least three police vehicles were struck by rounds from Douglas’ weapon, including two Columbus Police Department vehicles and an Indiana State Police SUV, state police said.
Douglas then continued driving north and entered a cornfield near County Road 300 West and Deaver Road, stopping his truck several hundred feet off the road.
Officers surrounded the truck, and the Columbus Police Department SWAT team arrived a short time later. The South Zone Indiana State Police (ISP) SWAT team also responded as officers attempted to negotiate with Douglas.
At one point during the pursuit, Douglas went live on Facebook while driving. Sirens could be heard in the background.
“This is going to be the last video I will post and the last anybody is going to see me in person,” he said.
“I’ve asked for help from way too many people just to be given up on and left.”
Around 5:30 p.m., after an approximately five-hour standoff, Douglas exited his vehicle and picked up a second AR-15-style rifle from a box in the rear of his truck. ISP SWAT team members then fired and struck Douglas, state police said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by the coroner’s office, and ISP Sellersburg Post detectives and crime scene technicians were called to investigate.
No officers were injured.
Douglas was a 2009 Brown County High School graduate.
The case remains under investigation as ISP detectives will conduct multiple interviews in the coming days and review any pertinent information and any possible video, the ISP reported.
Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Carey Huls said that information about whether Douglas was under the influence of drugs is part of the investigation and will be determined through the autopsy and toxicology testing.
Years ago, in a Brown County murder investigation, Douglas was questioned by the FBI after they said he resembled the description of a murder suspect, which included wearing a long black coat, something he used to like to wear, his mother said. That interaction, and others that followed over the years — his record shows misdemeanor traffic infractions — created a distrust of law enforcement on Douglas’ part, his mother said.
He had lost his third-shift job at a Bartholomew County manufacturer two weeks ago, his mother said. He had failed a drug test due to methamphetamine use and had asked his supervisor for help, but was not offered any resources or assistance and was just told he was fired, she said. She has since learned he was introduced to methamphetamine by a co-worker at the factory, she said.
Brenda Douglas disputed the account by police officers that her son had fired the AR-15 at three police vehicles, damaging them, and said she planned to ask to view this evidence by seeing the police cars and viewing their car cameras.
She expressed intense anger that the SWAT team was unwilling to give him the requested phone call to his wife, and she says Douglas told them he would surrender if they did.
ISP has no information about the request to speak with his wife, although Huls said that Douglas was on the phone with police during negotiations during the five-hour standoff.
Brenda Douglas said she was texting with her son throughout the standoff, but was asked to stop by police because they said she was “irritating him.”
“My son asked for one phone call and he would be here today if he had been allowed that one phone call (to his wife),” she said. “He would have surrendered. No one would listen to my son. They just wanted to end it.”
He had three children, ages, 3, 8 and 9. He liked to go fishing, take his children fishing and spend time with his family, according to his mother.
All he wanted to say in the phone call to his wife was that he loved her, that he was sorry and that he was going to go to jail, his mother said. “But the police would not let him do that,” she said.
Police did allow Douglas’ wife to record a video to send to him, but he didn’t want that, his mother said.
“He would never hurt nobody,” his mother said. “He would never hurt his wife and kids.”
There was no reason to end the standoff after five hours, she said, adding that even if it took hours and hours, they could have gotten her son to surrender.
She said she just wanted people to understand that her son was a loving and caring person every day of his 30 years of life.
“No one needs to be trashed because he wanted to make one phone call,” she said of her son. “He knew he was going to jail. He just wanted to tell his wife how sorry he was. And now he’ll never get to say that to any of us ever again.”
