A Merrillville police officer is in critical condition and a man is dead after officers and the man exchange gunfire Friday night in the Northwest Indiana community, according to police.
The incident, which started about 10:45 p.m. Friday when a resident of the townhomes just south of U.S. Route 30 and west of Broadway Avenue called 911 to report a man nearby who wasn't supposed to be there, police said.
In a release from the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force, police were sent to the Temple Lake Condominiums, in the 8200 block of Lincoln Circle, after receiving an "unwanted party" call. A man had moved back into a condominium from which he had been evicted in July, and shots were fired as police conducted an investigation after arriving at the scene.
The 33-year-old man, who police said was wearing bullet-resistant body armor, and officers exchanged shots, according to the release, and the man was killed. He was identified by the Lake County coroner's office as Michael Hrnciar, of the 8200 block of Lincoln Circle. The coroner's office said Hrnciar committed suicide.
The officer was identified in the release as Nickolaus Schultz, a 24-year-old who had been with the Merrillville Police Department for one year. Schultz was transported in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Indiana State Police troopers escorted the officer. Northwest Indiana does not have a trauma center equipped to deal with the most serious gunshot wounds and Chicago and suburban hospitals routinely treat trauma patients from northwest Indiana.
The task force investigating the incident is made up of 63 detectives from 25 police agencies, including the FBI and ATF, Foley said. Because the shooting involved Merrillville, that department is only involved in a support role and the task force is leading the investigation.
Both the FBI and ATF assisted in the investigation that began late Friday, which Foley described just before 6 a.m. as still in its early stages. Foley said that some weapons were removed from the home but wouldn't say whether they were firearms.
Lake County coroner's office investigators left the subdivision just before 5 a.m. and a tow truck arrived a short time later to take away a van. Detectives from Gary, Griffith and other area towns filed out a short time later, leaving just a few investigators behind.
The shooting took place in a townhome that sits on a pond enclosed by a six-foot white vinyl privacy fence. Each of the townhomes appear identical -- down to the gray siding -- and are landscaped with white rocks and small manicured shrubs.
The Porter County bomb squad was called to the scene to size up materials thought to be used for making fireworks and because the materials were there to create improvised explosive devices. It has since been deemed safe and Don Foley, commander of the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force and the sergeant in charge of the Dyer Police Department's detective division, said no risk exists to neighbors or other residents in the area.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
