Body cams show MPD officers open fire as car charges
Douglas WalkerMUNCIE, Ind. – A jury deliberated for about 90 minutes Tuesday before finding a Muncie man guilty of trying to strike officers with his car in a post office parking lot.
Charles K. Dinkins, 48, of the 1200 block of South Franklin Street, was convicted of attempted aggravated battery, criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement and leaving the scene of the accident.
He will be sentenced by Delaware Circuit Court 1 Judge Marianne Vorhees on Aug. 23. The most serious charge, attempted aggravated battery, is a Level 3 felony carrying up to 16 years in prison.
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During the two-day trial, Deputy Prosecutor Steve Sneed presented testimony indicating Dinkins fled from city officers trying to make a traffic stop about 2:30 a.m. on March 24.
He crashed his Chevrolet Cavalier through a gate and drove into a fenced-enclosed parking lot at the U.S. Post Office along West Memorial Drive, striking two postal vehicles.
The patrolmen – Sean Dennis and Jonathan Thornton – left their police SUV after a female passenger jumped out of Dinkins’ car and fell in the parking lot.
The officers fired gunshots at the Cavalier as it passed near them, and the woman, at a high rate of speed.
Both officers testified Monday they believed their lives were in danger. More shots were fired when Dinkins drove near the officers again, then left the lot through the hole he had created in the enclosure.
The Muncie man was struck by at least one of the bullets – Dennis testified he fired 18 gunshots – and the Cavalier crashed into a pickup truck parked along West 13th Street.
On Monday, Sneed showed jurors recordings of the incident from the officers’ body cameras.
On Tuesday morning, during deliberations, Judge Vorhees granted the jurors’ request to watch those videos again.
Dinkins did not testify, and his defense attorney, Joe Hunter, called no witnesses to the stand. In closing remarks, Hunter maintained there was no evidence his client intended to harm the officers.
In his closing statement, Sneed recalled that when an officer asked the wounded Dinkins what his name was, the Muncie man responded, “Rumpelstiltskin.”
The deputy prosecutor said that was appropriate, because the defense was trying to spin “straw into gold.”
On June 23, after an investigation by Indiana State Police, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman announced no charges would be filed against the Muncie patrolmen over their use of firearms.
Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.