The battle lines have been drawn.

Via WXIN:

March Eugene Ratney, according to Department of Correction records, wasn’t due to be released from prison until this past June 6 after serving half of a 12-year sentence following his conviction as a serious violent felon with a weapon. Ten days later, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers were called to an east side address where Ratney’s sister said he had pulled a gun and threatened to kill her.

Investigators now report, and neighbors confirmed, Ratney, on parole, was the man clad in a Black Lives Matter t-shirt and screaming profanities at police, who shot up an IMPD officer’s house not far from his own home early this morning.

The officer and his family were uninjured.

“Think about this, this is your home,” said IMPD Chief Troy Riggs. “If there is one place in this world where you should always feel safe and your family should feel safe, it is in your home.”

The officer had just returned from work, but had not yet retired for the night, when approximately 17 shots were fired from a 9 mm handgun into his house, fence and patrol car.

Neighbors recalled seeing a man in a Black Lives Matter t-shirt that also had obscenities directed at police walking the neighborhood last Friday night.

A nearby surveillance camera captured images of a fleeing vehicle shortly after the shooting at 2 a.m.

Ratney was driving a similar car and was stopped a few blocks away within an hour.

During his interrogation at IMPD headquarters, Ratney denied the shooting but became irate, cursed the officers and urinated in the interview room.

At that time the interview was concluded.

“If we’re going to overcome issues in our community, whether perceived or actual, we’ve got to work together and we can’t tolerate this,” said Riggs. “This officer represents this city and our city was attacked and his family was attacked as a result.”

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