The Indiana State Police is investigating a Highland Police officer’s fatal shooting of a Highland man during a domestic call early this morning.

According to the ISP, at 12:45 a.m. two HPD officers were dispatched to the apartment of Joshua R. Jones, 27, at the Port De L’eau Apartments after receiving “a third-party call about a possible domestic situation” there.

Jones allowed the officers entrance and “was cooperating until he saw his mother,” police said, at which point he “suddenly physically and violently assaulted her.”

The two officers grabbed Jones, who struggled, tried unsuccessfully to remove the sidearm from an officer’s holster, but did manage to strike an officer in the head with his own expandable baton (ASP), police said.

The other officer then Tased Jones twice, but both deployments were ineffective and Jones responded by striking that officer in the left forearm with the ASP, police said. That officer then “discharged his weapon, striking Jones.”

Jones was subsequently pronounced dead at Munster Community Hospital., police said. An autopsy was scheduled for today in Lake County.

At the HPD’s request, ISP detectives and crime scene technicians from the Lowell Post are investigating the incident.

The officer struck in the head with the ASP was treated for a head injury and released. Both officers are on paid administrative leave per the HPD Standard Operating Procedure. The ISP has released neither officer’s name.

Posted 1/31/2012