Deputies returned fire, 2 dead in shootings at Family Express near Lafayette

Dave Bangert | Lafayette Journal & Courier

UPDATE, 10 a.m. Monday: Police were still waiting for results of autopsies of the two men who were shot and killed Sunday night at a Family Express convenience store at Old Indiana 25 and County Road 300 North, a half-mile north of Interstate 65.

This story will be updated.

The following account appeared Monday, Dec. 30, at jconline.com:

LAFAYETTE – Two Tippecanoe County deputies who returned fire Sunday night as they tried to detain an armed man near the gas pumps at a Family Express were on paid administrative leave Monday as the Indiana State Police investigated a pair of shooting deaths at the convenience store just north of Lafayette.

Details remained sketchy Monday after police say two men were shot and killed Sunday night at a Family Express convenience store on Old Indiana 25, just north Lafayette.

Sgt. Kim Riley of the Indiana State Police said police were waiting for autopsies, scheduled for Monday afternoon and Tuesday, before telling more about how two men died, one inside the Family Express store at 3105 Old Indiana 25 and the other near the gas pumps of the station about a half-mile from Interstate 65.

Riley said the two people “were both local,” but he said police weren’t prepared to release more than that on Monday. Tippecanoe County Coroner Donna Avolt said the first of the two autopsies had started late Monday afternoon. She said she wasn’t sure how long both autopsies would take.

Riley said Tippecanoe County sheriff’s deputies went to the Family Express at 7:18 p.m. Sunday after getting a 911 call about shots fired.

Riley said that when officers arrived, one man was dead inside the store. The other man was armed and standing outside the store, near the gas pumps, Riley said. When deputies tried to detain him, shots were fired and that person was killed, Riley said.

On Monday afternoon, Tippecanoe County Sheriff Bob Goldsmith said the man outside fired at police and that deputies returned fire.

Who fired the fatal shot for the man outside the station and how the man inside the Family Express died were not immediately released by Indiana State Police, which took over the investigation at the request of Goldsmith.

Riley said employees in the Family Express were not injured and were not involved in firing any of the shots. Riley said the two men killed were not Family Express employees.

Riley said the only two people hit with bullets in the incident were the two men who died that night.

The identities of the two people killed were not immediately released.

Goldsmith declined to release the names of the deputies who had been placed on administrative leave during the investigation. He also declined to discuss what it would take to remove them from administrative leave.

Neighbors contacted by the J&C near the station were reluctant to talk about the shootings, which left what appeared to be bullet holes in a RedBox video kiosk on the north side of the convenience store.

Messages left with officials at Family Express, based in Valparaiso, were not immediately returned Monday. The gas station and convenience store at the corner of Old Indiana 25 and County Road 300 North was open for business Monday.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.