April 18, 2011 Indiana police pursuit ends in suicide www.privateofficer.com
NEW CASTLE IN April 18 2011 — State police say a Plainfield man fatally shot himself Friday morning while being pursued by a trooper in southeastern Henry County.
Vance E. Smith, 41, led the state trooper on a chase on Interstate 70 near the 131-marker starting about 11:10 a.m. according to a press release. The trooper initially was trying to alert Smith that items were falling out of his eastbound pickup truck.
The truck briefly left the interstate, with the trooper in pursuit, traveling from an exit onto Wilbur Wright Road, but soon returned to I-70, this time in the westbound lanes.
Two troopers then saw the driver “reaching for an unknown item”, then saw the truck leave the interstate and come to rest in the median. Smith as found to be suffering from “an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the release said.
According to Indiana Department of Correction records, Smith had been released from custody in April after serving a sentence for robbery and driving-after-a-lifetime-suspension convictions, both in Clay County.
He had also served prison terms for at least four other convictions for driving after his license was suspended for life.
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