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Suspect in Sunday IMPD chase goes to court; officers who fired weapons named

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The three officers who fired at two suspects in a Sunday afternoon police chase were identified Friday.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says Zachary Boston, Andrew Girt and Jacob Liebhauser fired at the suspects after one of them fired at the officers. Girt has been with the department for 15 years. Boston and Leibhauser have each been with the IMPD for three years.

The officers’ names were released after threat assessments were made by IMPD as part of a policy created in 2020.

IMPD said Monday that the two suspects, both men, were arrested, and the one who fired his weapon at police remained hospitalized in critical condition.

According to online court records, Christian Myers, 22, faces two counts of battery by means of a deadly weapon; a count of criminal recklessness; a count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a domestic batterer; and a count of battery resulting in bodily injury. He’s scheduled for a second initial hearing Thursday in Marion Superior Court 28 to be formally charged. He had an initial hearing Friday in Marion Superior Court 28 and was scheduled for a second initial hearing Thursday.

The Sunday afternoon car chase came as police searched Sunday for Myers.

IMPD was called about 3 a.m. Sunday to a shots fired incident in the 1000 block of Broad Ripple Avenue. That’s on the north side along the intersection with Westfield Boulevard. A woman, who has not been identified, told officers about a disturbance with the father of her child. She said the man fired at least one shot into her vehicle as she drove away. The woman was not injured.

IMPD found Myers about 4 p.m. Sunday outside a car at the BP gas station at East 38th Street and Fall Creek Boulevard, which is on the near-north side next to the State Fairgrounds. Police tried to stop Myers, but he led officers on what IMPD called on a brief vehicle pursuit. That pursuit ended with a crash with another car near Kessler Boulevard East Drive and Binford Boulevard, on the city’s northeast side. Myers and another man, a 24-year-old who IMPD asked on Monday not be identified, exited the car and ran westbound across Binford, through a ditch and over a fence to the 5800 block of Winding Way Lane. Myers fired shots at three officers, and they returned fire and hit the gunman, IMPD says.

The 24-year-old man was not injured from the shooting but was taken to a hospital on Sunday with complaints of chest pain. He faces a preliminary charge of resisting law enforcement. “He was not suspected as having any role in the original disturbance and there is no indication he fired any shots at officers,” IMPD’s Monday news release said.

Detectives located two handguns with an extended magazine outside the passenger door of the car Myers was in. Police say one of the handguns had a Glock switch.

The officers who fired their guns were put on administrative leave, a standard procedure.

No officers or uninvolved citizens were injured during the shooting.

Myers’ bail was set at $60,000. He remained in the Marion County jail on Friday night, but the Marion County Sheriff’s Office says no booking photo was immediately available for him.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Erika Jones at the homicide office by calling 317-327-3475 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.

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