By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office responded to an incident on Tuesday, Aug. 9, in which a man had barricaded himself in an attic.

KCSO Sgt. Travis Shively provided that information at the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Merit Board meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 10. He noted that Kosciusko County Sheriff Kyle Dukes had asked him to mention it at the meeting.

The incident occurred in Syracuse. Police had arrived at the location due to serving a felony warrant, said Shively.

Police used pepper spray and PepperBall guns in the situation, he said.

“In about a two, two and a half hour incident, we were able to finally get him out of the attic,” said Shively. “Nobody got hurt, no injuries. We were able to utilize all those different tools, which gives us a lot of options.”

“We didn’t have to destroy anything by cutting a vent out or anything like that,” he continued. “We didn’t have to put a dog up there. … Just so that you guys are aware on the use of force side of it that we have lots of options.”

In other business, the board:

• Heard from KCSO Capt. Travis Marsh that officers were to be doing special patrols monitoring school bus safety for a month starting on Monday, Aug. 15.
• Heard from Marsh that Tim Sammons, who just retired as Pierceton town marshal, is now working for the KCSO serving papers as a civil process server.
• Heard from Marsh and others that the KCSO’s Camp H.E.R.O. last month went well. Kids learn about CPR, first aid, police work and more through it.
• Heard from Marsh that the KCSO is getting special equipment for officers to communicate with those with autism if they encounter them while on a call. It includes pictures as well as “like a keyboard … if you ask them a question, they can type it out on the keyboard,” said Marsh. KCSO is getting the equipment via a grant.