FORT WAYNE, Indiana — A man was shot and killed by Fort Wayne police officers early on Tuesday, November 3, after police say he opened fire on an Emergency Services Team that had come to a southeast Fort Wayne home to serve a search warrant and an arrest warrant. The shooting happened at about 7:20 a.m. in the 3100 block of Elmdale Drive, and it is now being investigated twice over: by the Fort Wayne Police Department's own Homicide Team and Crime Scene Unit, and, separately, by detectives of the Indiana State Police.

Source: 96.3 XKE / Adams Radio Group, reporting the Fort Wayne Police Department statement

What police say happened on Elmdale Drive

In its statement, released on Tuesday afternoon and updated on Wednesday, November 4, the Fort Wayne Police Department (FWPD) said its Emergency Services Team — the department's tactical unit, used for high-risk warrants — was serving a search and arrest warrant in the 3100 block of Elmdale Drive when, in the department's words, officers 'were fired upon from a building on the property by a man.' The address sits on the city's southeast side, close to Hessen Cassel Road and East Paulding Road, in Allen County.

Police say the officers retreated and returned fire, striking the man, who died at the scene from his injuries. Medical aid was requested for him shortly after the first police message went out just before 8 a.m., but he could not be saved. One officer fell while retreating and sustained minor injuries; no other officers were hurt, the department said. The man's name, age and the reason for the warrants have not been released in the statements published so far, and police have not said what kind of building on the property the shots were fired from.

The department's first public message, issued shortly before 8 a.m. on Tuesday, was short: 'FWPD is investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred at 3100 Elmdale Dr at approximately 7:20 am. The scene is secure, and medical aid was requested for the involved person. Additional information will be released as it is confirmed and appropriate with the investigative process.'

The department's statement, and the two investigations

In the fuller statement that followed on Tuesday afternoon, the department said: 'Any incident involving police use of deadly force is serious. The safety of the neighborhood and Fort Wayne is our first priority. We secured the scene, and the community is safe. Our process for officer-involved shootings is thorough, and we will take our time to ensure we have investigated the incident properly before sharing any findings with the public.'

Source: Fort Wayne Police Department statement, via 96.3 XKE

Two investigative tracks are now running. FWPD's Homicide Team and Crime Scene Unit were called to the scene to work the case, while Indiana State Police detectives are on scene conducting what the department described as a 'separate but parallel investigation' — the standard arrangement in Indiana, where an outside agency reviews a local department's use of deadly force so that the findings do not rest only on the department's own account. The officers who fired will be placed on administrative leave for five days, which FWPD said is its normal protocol while an investigation continues.

One address in a much bigger warrant morning

The Elmdale Drive operation was not the only warrant served in northeast Indiana that morning. WPTA, Fort Wayne's ABC affiliate, reported that residents across Fort Wayne and the surrounding area noticed a heavy police presence on Tuesday because officers from local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies were conducting search warrants across northeast Indiana, and that police logs showed more than a dozen search warrants had been served. Whether the Elmdale Drive warrants were formally part of that wider multi-agency effort has not been confirmed by FWPD, which has so far described only its own team's operation at the address.

Source: WPTA 21Alive, Fort Wayne

What is still not known

Several basic facts remain unreleased more than a day after the shooting: the identity of the man who was killed, what the search warrant and the arrest warrant were for, how many officers fired, and whether any body-camera or other video of the encounter exists. WANE 15, Fort Wayne's CBS affiliate, and WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, both reported the death on Tuesday in the same terms as the department's statement, and no outlet has published an account from the man's family so far. Under Indiana practice, the Allen County Coroner's Office normally confirms the identity of a person killed in such an incident once family notification is complete.

What happens next

The next confirmed steps are procedural: the officers involved remain on five days' administrative leave, both investigations continue, and the coroner is expected to release the man's identity. The findings of the state police investigation will go to the Allen County prosecutor, who decides whether any criminal charge arises from the shooting; FWPD has promised further information 'as it is confirmed.' For neighbours on Elmdale Drive and around Hessen Cassel and East Paulding, the immediate disruption ended on Tuesday — police said the scene was secured and the community was safe — but the questions the two investigations must answer, above all what the warrants were for and how the first shots came to be fired, are still open.

For Awaaz Punjab's readers in Indiana and across the Midwest — including the Punjabi truckers who run the I-69 corridor through Fort Wayne daily — this is a local public-safety story with a long tail: a fatal outcome at a routine warrant service, an outside agency now building the record, and a prosecutor's decision still to come. This report will be updated by the newsroom as the coroner's identification and the investigators' findings are released.