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Rock through window causes afternoon Courthouse scare

Thursday, April 14, 2022 ~ Updated 8:02 PM
By JARED JERNAGAN, Editor
Officers from the Greencastle Police Department and Putnam County Sheriff’s Office search the Putnam County Courthouse lawn following a report of shots fired Thursday. The source of the issue was found to be a rock thrown through a window, though officers such as GPD’s Darrel Bunten (below) were not taking any chances.
Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

A man has been detained and is being evaluated following an initial report of shots fired at the Putnam County Courthouse Thursday afternoon.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

Investigators ultimately determined that a rock thrown through a window of the Putnam County Auditor’s Office was the source of the issue.

Police are not currently identifying the subject, as the incident is being treated as a mental health issue.

Greencastle Police Chief Tom Sutherlin told the Banner Graphic the incident began with the man creating a disturbance inside the Courthouse, for which he was forcibly removed and locked out.

Shortly thereafter, he allegedly threw a rock through a second-story window near the northwest corner of the building. The rock was found inside the Auditor’s Office, along with a broken window and glass fragments on a desk.

No one was hurt in the incident.

However, multiple police officers, only knowing the nature of the initial call, converged on the area around 3:40 p.m.

Officers searched the area with rifles drawn before a report came in of a male person of interest several blocks north.

“The person of interest was found in the 1000 block of Shadowlawn,” Sutherlin said, indicating the man was located in his own garage.

Officers responded to that address, with an officer indicating the man was in custody as of 3:48 p.m.

Putnam County EMS later transported the man to Putnam County Hospital, where he remained more than two hours after the incident, being evaluated for a possible mental health issue.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office later reported the man had been booked in the Putnam County Jail on various charges, including resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

While the incident proved not to be as scary as initially believed, Sutherlin had high praise for the coordination between Greencastle Police, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Cloverdale Police and DePauw Police.

“It was a very good response with multiple agencies responding to the call. It was quick,” Sutherlin said. “It’s always a little chaotic when you get that type of call, but everybody worked well together and got the situation under control.”

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  • Better ban assault rocks

    -- Posted by taylortwp on Thu, Apr 14, 2022, at 6:14 PM

  • Thank you all personnel who helped in what could have been a major situation. Our law enforcement gets a big kudos for today. Thank you

    -- Posted by Nit on Thu, Apr 14, 2022, at 8:28 PM
  • *

    Avenger - this is now a Constitutional Rock Carry state.

    -- Posted by RSOTS on Thu, Apr 14, 2022, at 10:13 PM

  • RSOTS - Not until July 1st. Someone "jumped the gun".

    -- Posted by FactswithoutBS on Fri, Apr 15, 2022, at 7:14 AM
  • *

    "Howdy do to you and you. It's me, it's me, it's Ernest T.!"

    -- Posted by Retired Taxi Driver on Fri, Apr 15, 2022, at 11:05 AM

  • So let me get this straight, I no longer have to jump through government hoops to carry a handgun, which is a “constitutional right” (by the way, I carry), but I, and others, still have to jump through government hoops to vote? Yeah, I don’t understand that either.

    -- Posted by Koios on Sat, Apr 16, 2022, at 9:41 PM

  • Koios

    TWe are probably aligned on guns so I am curious on 2 simple items- who do you think should be able to vote and who should not be able to vote. Would love to hear your reasoning for your perspectives also.

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 12:32 AM

  • Every citizen should have the equal opportunity to vote, without government barriers. If getting a handgun permit is onerous government interdiction, what is all the BS many people are made to go through to vote?

    -- Posted by Koios on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 6:09 AM

  • Koios

    We agree that citizens should have right to vote.

    Should a voter be required to validate they are who they say they are? Should there be an age requirement?

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 7:37 AM

  • Should a person carrying a firearm be required to validate they are who they say they are?

    -- Posted by Koios on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 11:02 AM

  • Koios,

    I see you don't want to answer the questions. Or provide the reasoning for your position. I understand why.

    As for guns, yes validation of person should be required.

    Hopefully, I will be more discipline in the future in regards to trying to engage in exchange of ideas with SLLSC theologists.

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 12:09 PM

  • Hahahaha, SLLSC. Stop it. Get some help.

    -- Posted by BJCP96 on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 3:26 PM

  • playbook! or maybe marching orders?

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 4:09 PM

  • I don’t even know what an SLLSC theologist is, so I doubt I’m one. I would like to know why so-called odious governmental intrusions like carry permits are so bad when intrusions that make it more difficult for some to vote are not.

    -- Posted by Koios on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 4:15 PM

  • You still refuse to answer the questions? Why is that? I know why. Do you?

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 6:27 PM

  • I agreed with you on guns so traveling down that road even exposes the SCLSL bias intellectual emptiness even more. You still can't answer simple questions. Every non SLLSC knows why.

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 6:50 PM

  • You are not addressing my question either, are you some weird acronym too? Here is my question, if you skipped over my last comment.

    I would like to know why so-called odious governmental intrusions like carry permits are so bad when intrusions that make it more difficult for some to vote are not.

    2 Constitutional rights treated very differently by our current Legislature.

    -- Posted by Koios on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 7:24 PM

  • Koios,

    I disagree. I answered your question. You refuse to answer mine.

    On top of that, I started our conversation with the questions. You didn't answer but offered another question. I answered your question and then you added another. You have ignored mine. FACT. I understand why you won't answer mine. I answered your first one and realize that I made the mistake we could have a sharing of ideas. I went down your road and you have yet to even acknowledge mine.

    I understand why you are taking this approach. Sadly, once again, I fell into the hope that those who seem to be of the SLLSC political theology could have a conversation of ideas and concepts. I just need to accept it can't happen. That is on me. I am an optimist and must realize that optimism must be rooted in reality.

    Trust your week is off to a great start!!!

    -- Posted by beg on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 9:40 PM

  • What is with the acronyms? And you didn’t address my original question.

    -- Posted by Koios on Mon, Apr 18, 2022, at 10:13 PM

  • First of all, what do any of these comments (beyond maybe the first few) have to do with the article as written. I'm constantly amazed at how quick we all are to go off topic and just ramble.

    Then, for fun I googled SLLSC and got very excited when it took me to the Strong Lens Line-of-sight and Substructure Challenge on GitHub. I'm fairly certain that is not what your definition of it is, but still, that was a worthwhile find.

    This is not the first thread that has taken a turn away from the point of the article. Let's try to stay focused please, as people who are in the paper do have moms that read about them ;)

    Enjoy your week.

    Dave Roberts (no relation to the dread pirate)

    Maybe if you all told each other your real names you could have some real discussions over coffee at McDonalds or one of the local gas stations. Might be worth a try sometime.

    -- Posted by gfd622 on Wed, Apr 20, 2022, at 2:50 PM

  • @gfd622 Another comment section policeman... just let people have debate! You mentioned mothers reading in the paper, maybe you're referring to my comments on the "new on the beat" article? I doubt that officer Herd or his mother's feelings are hurt because the comments weren't only praise and congratulations for him. It isn't a facebook post!

    But the comments I made about Tracy Bridges who's running for county clerk... If you're an official or running for office then isn't it fair game to publicly scrutinize you? Isn't it acceptable to criticize them? People can discuss their record and concerns, nothing wrong with that. One point I mentioned was that she was married to judge Denny Bridges, and if elected would be the clerk for his court. I think it's reasonable to be concerned about that and think it's worth discussing! There's a few reasons why that concerns me. Then somebody said they weren't together anymore. Are they divorced then? If so, why is there no reporting of the divorce in the BannerGraphic like yours or mine would be, what's up with that? I'm also concerned she would politicize the job.

    One the other hand there's Debbie Ensor, who is a career employee of the clerk's office who seems to be best suited to take over.

    We should be free to discuss these things in the comments! But they don't allow comments on election news. They even wrote an article in June 2016 that basically said, "yeah, we know this is unusual and it looks pretty shady and simple-minded, but don't care we're doing it anyway". Then he gave an example of some facebook comments that had some silly name-calling to justify it. Again... this isn't facebook! I can't find another paper that does this.

    Btw, Rust Communications, the company that owns the Bannergraphic and about 40 other newspapers, has a flagship paper called the Southeast Missourian, which is published by the co-president of Rust, Jon Rust. If you check out their website, you'll see it looks similar to this one. But a big difference is that they allow comments on ALL articles, including candidates and elections. They even have a section listing the previous week's most commented on articles! They also have a public comment forum called Speak Out, where people can discuss any topic they want (they're mostly political discussions). They must realize that local people want to discuss and debate issues, and gave them a place to do it. They know that transparency is extremely important to having good government. Of these two papers who do you think is doing it the right way? Which has the real integrity?

    Is the real reason why someone at the Bannergraphic doesn't want comments is to help their old friends in local government? Hmm......

    -- Posted by Raker on Thu, Apr 21, 2022, at 7:55 AM
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