Police: Man broke into home, stabbed pet
A 37-year-old Indianapolis man has been charged with felonies and a misdemeanor after police say he walked into a house, stabbed a dog which he thought was a coyote, and hit a man in the home.
Michael Evans was charged on March 15 with residential entry, a Level 6 felony; torturing or mutilating a vertebrate animal, a Level 6 felony; and battery resulting in bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor.
Police responded to the incident on Matlock Drive March 3. Evans had left on foot in an unknown direction, according to an incident report by Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Austin Schonfeld.
The victim said he had returned home from work and found a man in his driveway. He was talking about how his children were in the home. The victim tried to tell him he was at the wrong house.
Evans continued to walk into the home, so the victim called 911. While the victim and his roommate were trying to get Evans out of the house, he stabbed the dog. He also punched the victim in the ear and in the stomach, according to Schonfeld’s report.
Officers set up a perimeter to find Evans. He had left his jacket in the driveway. As Schonfeld was preparing K9 Kronin to search for Evans, officers reported seeing a man with no jacket on standing at the neighbor’s house standing with his hands up, the report states. He was arrested.
Evans told police he believed he was at another person’s home that was 10 miles away and that he thought his children were in the home. He said he went into the house where he thought his children were and was attacked by a coyote, so he stabbed the animal.
The dog had a wound to its left side. The K9 officer found the knife in the leaves outside the house.
Evans was taken to the Brown County jail.
Police conducting school bus safety patrols
This spring officers with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department and Nashville Police Department will be out monitoring school bus routes for stop arm violations and other unsafe driving behavior.
The overtime patrols are funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through the Stop Arm Violation Enforcement program. The program was developed by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute in 2019, according to a press release from the sheriff’s department.
“Disregarding a school bus stop arm is a very dangerous and serious offense,” Sheriff Scott Southerland said.
“We want students to arrive to school and return home safely, which is why we’re asking all motorists to drive cautiously around buses or face the consequences.”
More than 200 departments around the state will participate in the school bus safety campaign. High-visibility patrols will be done in the mornings and afternoons along routes that will be identified by bus drivers and the school transportation department.
Officers will also be looking out for speeding and distracted driving.
It is against the law in Indiana to pass a bus that is stopped with red lights flashing and a stop arm extended. The only exception is if a person is driving on a highway that is divided by a barrier, like a grassy median, and is traveling the opposite direction of a bus, the release states.
