The suspect who was shot and killed by law enforcement in Batesville on Monday, November 16, 2020, has now been identified as Joshua D. Evans, age 32.

Batesville Police Officers were called to Evans’ home on Bridlewood Trace Road at approximately 8:00 AM on Monday after he was reported to be acting irrationally, causing the other occupants of the home to fear for their safety. 

Officers initially arrived and removed an adult female and three children from the residence. 

While officers stood outside the garage of the residence attempting to make contact with Evans, he fired a shot at an officer. 

An officer was struck by debris from that shot and received minor injuries.

Numerous officers from multiple agencies responded to the scene. 

Evans remained barricaded inside the garage for over three hours. 

At one point, Indiana State Police Negotiators made contact with him on the phone and began speaking to him. 

At approximately 11:30, Evans fired additional shots from the garage.  Evans soon exited the garage while holding a gun.

Three troopers with the Indiana State Police SWAT Team and an officer with the Greensburg Police Department fired shots during the incident. 

Evans was struck by at least one shot.  He was provided with immediate first aid but died as a result of the injuries he sustained.

The investigation by detectives with the Indiana State Police-Versailles District is ongoing. 

An autopsy was performed yesterday in Hamilton County, Ohio. 

The results of the autopsy and the toxicology results are pending at this time.

The names of the involved officers are not being released at this time.

Washington County stayed in the “Orange” category of Covid positivity rate for the second week in a row as the positivity rate declined to 10.65.

A week ago, the county moved to Orange from Yellow, and had a total positivity rate of 14.92 which was dangerously close to being in the “Red” category.

The 7-day positivity rate was 12.2 percent with 12 new cases reported Wednesday and a total case count of 602.

This is an increase of 169 cases since November 1. 

The Indiana State Health Department designates a Red county that has a 15 percent positivity rate or greater. 

Washington County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Morgan issued strict guidelines for county schools to go online for junior and high school students and a limit of 50 attendees of extracurricular events.

He said if the county moved into the “Red” zone, he would recommend all students go online and all sports be shut down.

Indiana reported 6,143 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday and an additional 60 deaths as the state map detailing viral spread shaded ever darker.

Only one county in this week’s update, Putnam County, appears as yellow.

The rest are either orange, the second-highest level of spread, or red. This week more than 21 counties around the state fall into the red or highest category of spread.

Nine counties were Red last week:

• Clay
• Decatur
• Fayette
• Fountain
• Lagrange
• Newton
• Perry
• Union
• Warren

Twelve more counties turned Red this week:

• Lake
• Porter
• Elkhart
• Steuben
• Dekalb
• Whitley
• Allen
• Wells
• White
• Sullivan
• Brown
• Ripley
• Dearborn
• Franklin
• Spencer

A total of 4,830 Hoosiers are confirmed to have died from COVID-19, an increase of 60 from the previous day.

Another 254 probable deaths have been reported based on clinical diagnoses in patients for whom no positive test is on record.

Deaths are reported based on when data are received by the state and occurred over multiple days.           

To date, 1,989,456 unique individuals have been tested in Indiana, up from 1,969,088 on Tuesday.

A total of 3,668,049 tests, including repeat tests for unique individuals, have been reported to the state Department of Health since Feb. 26.

The state Department of Health will offer free drive-thru clinics at the following locations today through Saturday this week:

Lake County
St. Timothy Church
1600 W. 25^th Ave., Gary

Clay County
Clay County Testing
911 Bonnie Geyne Miller Dr., Brazil

Spencer County
Spencer County Community Center
1101 E. CR 800 North, Chrisney

Jasper County
Kankakee Fire Station
12161 N. County Road 200 East, Wheatfield

To find other testing sites around the state, visit www.coronavirus.in.gov and click on the COVID-19 testing information link.

Do you have questions about utilizing trees and shrubs in your landscape? If so, you should plan to join the Trees in the Landscape Webinar presented by Richard Beckort, Purdue
Extension Ag. & Natural Resources Educator in Jackson County on Thursday, December 17, 2020, beginning at 11:30 am to learn about the selection, planting, and care of landscape trees and
shrubs.

Richard will be available to answer your tree and shrub questions.

To join the webinar and/or to receive the webinar recording, pre-registration is required by Tuesday, December 15,
2020 by visiting https://bit.ly/treecarelandscaping101.

For questions about the webinar, contact Purdue Extension – Decatur Co. at jhermesch@purdue.edu or 812-663-8388, Purdue Extension – Jackson Co. at rbeckort@purdue.edu or 812-358-6101, Purdue Extension – Lawrence Co. at odavis@purdue.edu or 812-275-4623, or Purdue Extension – Washington County at
dhowellw@purdue.edu or 812-883-4601.

Indiana Department of Transportation contractor Beatty Construction Inc. plans to activate new traffic signals at the intersection of U.S. 421 (Harrison Street) and 2nd Street, near the Madison-Milton Bridge, on Friday, Nov. 20, weather permitting.

The new signals will be controlled by in-pavement loop sensors and feature three-section signal heads. 

Most work on the nearly-$10 million bridge approach project will be complete by the end of 2020. The new alignment opened to traffic in June. Second Street is planned to reopen in the next two to three weeks following the placement of temporary pavement markings. Crews will return to the site next spring to finish final surface paving and striping.

Motorists are reminded to slow down and use extra caution as traffic adjusts to the new signals. All work is weather dependent.

Attorney General Curtis Hill today urged Hoosiers to visit IndianaEquifaxClaims.com and file a claim for a restitution payment in light of the massive 2017 Equifax data breach. The last day for Hoosiers to file claims is Dec. 16, but Attorney General Hill said Hoosiers should file their claims as soon as possible.

The Equifax data breach occurred from May 2017 to July 2017 and impacted approximately 147 million Americans, including roughly 3.9 million Indiana residents. The breach compromised Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers and credit card information. Attorney General Hill sued Equifax following the data breach and secured a settlement with the company, which agreed to pay the state of Indiana $19.5 million. 

Indiana was one of two states that opted not to participate in a multistate settlement with Equifax in July 2019. Instead, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General opted to file its own lawsuit against the company. As a result, Indiana received more money than any of the states that participated in the multistate settlement, which distributed $175 million among the participating states.

All the nearly 4 million Indiana residents impacted by the data breach are eligible for a portion of the $19.5 million Equifax paid the state of Indiana. Many eligible Hoosiers have yet to file claims on IndianaEquifaxClaims.com, Attorney General Hill said.

“We structured our settlement with Equifax so that we could give Hoosiers the opportunity to claim money they may have lost due to Equifax’s failure to protect personal information,” Attorney General Hill said. “That money is just waiting to be claimed. Now, it’s up to Hoosiers to visit IndianaEquifaxClaims.com and secure their rightful portion of the settlement.”

Attorney General Hill encourages all Hoosiers who were Indiana residents between March 2017 and July 2017 to visit IndianaEquifaxClaims.com and enter the required information to file a claim. You will be able to select whether you would like your payment digitally or in the form of a paper check. Payments will be distributed after the Dec. 16 claim deadline.

Visit IndianaEquifaxClaims.com for more information about filing a claim and for answers to frequently asked questions about the settlement.