Friday, December 27, 2019

JPD officers cleared of wrongdoing in shooting death of Joplin man

Joplin Police Department officers Grant Meador and Laken Rawlins have been cleared of wrongdoing in connection with the August 13 shooting death of David Ingle, 31, Joplin, and will return to duty.

Both officers had been on administrative leave while an investigation was conducted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Chief Matt Stewart said at a press conference the investigation had determined that Meador, who has been a JPD officer five years and Rawlins, who has been with the department two years were absolved of any criminal wrongdoing and had no committed no violations of department policy.









The incident was described in a JPD news release:

Ingle (pictured below) was reported as a suspicious person yelling, screaming, and possibly on drugs by one caller. 



The Joplin Police Department received a second call about Ingle’s behavior as officers were arriving.

The first officer arrived and observed Ingle running down the roadway then fell to the ground yelling and screaming.

Once the second officer arrived, they attempted to detain Ingle due to his erratic behavior. Ingle at this time resisted officers.

Each officer fired their tasers at Ingle in an attempt to detain him safely. Ingle was able to resist through multiple deployments of the taser and engaged an officer.

During the taser deployments one officer was struck in the hand and she was unable to assist the other officer in detaining Ingle. The other officer at this time attempted to create distance with Ingle as Ingle engaged him. The officer fired his duty weapon striking Ingle, as Ingle was charging the officer. No weapons were located on scene.

Lifesaving efforts were completed by officers on scene until medical personnel arrived and transported Ingle to Mercy Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A sad situation. This is what drugs can do to people. Thank you to JPD for protecting our community. They place their lives on the line everyday, God bless them.

Anonymous said...

I watched the car cam footage and the body cam footage. Mr Ingle was on the ground and remained there for a long time. When officers approached him you could clearly see that as well as hear that Mr Ingle had misunderstood the officers and thought they told him to get up. Both officers put their foot on him and both fired the tasers into his back. The fact that she was shot in the hand by a taser prong shows how careless they both were. The officer who shot Mr Ingle knew he was unarmed and officers are supposed to be able to detain a suspect without the use of their side piece. If someone does not stop joplin police and the surrounding areas it will become another incident I can promise you people are starting rise against the corrupt system

Anonymous said...

They knew who he was. He had been in the system 31 times, this was a blatant murder!!! You can hear his friends telling officer Grant that Mr. Ingle was having a schizophrenic episode. If you look at the cleared up video you will see another set of wires that have been deployed. When he stands up he isn't in control of any of his muscles and movements. And if big ol police officer is scared of the loud man, them he should have ran to his BIG ol bullet proof car, shut the doors, and just stay away from the scary UNARMED MAN!!! ANOTHER PERSON DIED IN JOPLIN JAIL, JUST THIS LAST SEPT. HOW MANY MORE PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE AT THE HANDS OF THESE BIG BULLIES???