SWAT Team brought to Elkhart home after shots fired during domestic disturbance
ELKHART, Ind. — Tonight, Elkhart police are searching for the suspect in a domestic disturbance Friday morning, Oct. 16.
Officers with the Elkhart Police Department responded to a domestic disturbance call at 819 Fremont Street just before 10 a.m., possibly involving an armed individual.
Jessica McBrier with the Elkhart Police Department says when police arrived, a male suspect fired several shots from inside the house.
"During the shooting, a Dodge Charger on the road was struck. Thankfully, the male driver inside the vehicle was uninjured. He did leave the scene and return shortly thereafter and has been cooperating," shared McBrier.
McBrier confirmed it was a civilian car that was hit and police collected it as evidence. Officers went door to door to evacuate homes and only evacuated one.
The Elkhart County Regional SWAT Team arrived and began doing a call out to anyone inside the home.
"During that process, two adults and a young child exited, and then shortly thereafter, a juvenile female exited from the home, they were all uninjured," said McBrier.
At 12:50, the SWAT Team entered the home. Almost 25 minutes later at about 1:13, they came out empty-handed. After that, the SWAT Team cleared out and Fremont Street was reopened.
Brenda Harter lives across the street and says she was amazed when she came home to the heavy police presence.
"When I drove down Oakland, I saw a fire truck sitting there. That’s kind of strange, but okay. As I pulled down the street, I saw the SWAT vehicle. I pulled into my driveway, went to the house, to the front door and that’s when I saw SWAT. Some of them with face mask, some of them without face mask all with their guns pointed to that house. Down the street, there were some more police cars and stuff all pointing guns at that house telling them that they needed to come out, you know, for their continued safety. They needed to come out," Harter recalled.
At first glance, Harter thought the SWAT team were ICE agents.
"I swore they were ICE because they have masks on. When you see SWAT, they usually don't have masks on. When you see police, they usually don't have masks on and ICE had been busy in the area lately, especially in Goshen."
Harter says other than telling her neighbors not to park in front of the fire hydrant to avoid getting a ticket; they haven't caused much trouble.
"Occasionally, you know, a little bit yelling, a little bit of rowdiness but you know around the holidays, the Fourth of July, that happens anyway. They have a teenager that's... a teenager, but I haven’t had any problem with them," Harter shared.
ABC57 saw Harter speaking with two police officers after she got home. Harter told ABC57 the officers confirmed they weren't ICE agents and that they did go to the suspect's job. McBrier said she could not confirm whether that's true and couldn't share parts of their investigation.
The suspect was not in the house when the SWAT Team went inside. McBrier says a possible witness believes they saw someone matching the suspect's description leave the house. However, the police did not have definite confirmation which is why they continued calling him out for 30-40 minutes before entering the home.