Police

Emergency operations center activated in St. Joseph County

Erin Goff, St. Joseph County’s emergency management services director, said the agency on Monday virtually activated its emergency operations center. Goff provided details to members of the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners, who staged their twice-a-month executive committee meeting Wednesday. It was conducted through Zoom teleconference. Goff said the activation stage means keeping an open line of communication between …

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Home invasion – Two arrested

Two people were arrested following a home-invasion incident in Florence Township. State police troopers were called Monday afternoon to a residence on Lutz Road regarding a home invasion in progress. Authorities said the homeowners came home during the incident and one of the two suspects was in a car parked in the driveway. The person drove from the scene but …

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Indiana man dies after police subdue him with stun gun

Authorities say a northern Indiana man has died after a sheriff’s deputy used a stun gun to subdue him when he refused to drop a knife. St. Joseph County (Indiana) sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday went to a home in Granger, near South Bend, on a report that a knife-wielding man was chasing his wife. A deputy used the stun gun …

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Cass County crash

A Three Rivers woman was involved in a two-vehicle crash last week in Cass County’s Porter Township. Sheriff Richard Behnke said deputies were called at 3:25 p.m. Friday to an area of U.S. 12 near Vera Drive. Investigators said a pick-up driven by 26-year-old Alexander Earl of Goshen was stopped to turn left into a driveway. It was struck from …

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Sturgis woman killed in crash

A 56-year-old Sturgis woman died Tuesday in a single-vehicle crash in White Pigeon Township. The incident occurred just before 11 a.m. on U.S. 12 near Hillandale Road in the Klinger Lake area. According to the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department, Karen Lynette Napier, 56, was driving west on U.S. 12 when her vehicle left the south side of the road and …

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Campaign sign stolen

State police are investigating the theft of a campaign sign. The sign, promoting sheriff candidate Gordon Evilsizor, was stolen between Feb. 16 and this past Saturday. The sign was posted on the south side of U.S. 12, just west of Mann Road in Mottville Township, according to investigators.

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Fed-Ex truck on fire

No injuries were reported after a semi tractor-trailer caught fire last week on a highway in Branch County. Michigan State Police troopers were dispatched at 4:40 a.m. Friday to a report of a Fed Ex truck on fire in the northbound lane of Interstate 69 near the weigh station in Ovid Twp. The semi, a double trailer, was transporting nitric …

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Indiana panel backs ban on drivers using handheld phones

A proposal to ban drivers from using handheld cellphones on Indiana roads is advancing in the state Legislature. A state Senate committee voted 8-1 Tuesday to endorse the bill that only permits cellphone use with hands-free or voice-operated technology, except in emergencies. Tina Smith of Indianapolis testified from a wheelchair about how she and her husband had stopped their motorcycle …

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Mishawaka – Man in stolen SUV fleeing police strikes car, kills driver

A motorist has been killed in northwestern Indiana after a car was struck by a stolen SUV whose driver was fleeing police. State police say a trooper attempted to pull over the SUV about 7:30 p.m. Friday after seeing it travel about 99 mph near the Elkhart and St. Joseph county line. Other officers joined the pursuit and as they …

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Woman who pleaded guilty in deadly crash sent back to jail

A northern Indiana woman who pleaded guilty for her role in a hit-and-run crash that killed three people has been returned to jail after violating probation. Forty-three-year-old Penelope Grosswiler pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for hiding evidence related to the August 2017 crash, in which a vehicle driven by her husband, Leonard Grosswiler, struck and killed a man and …

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