Police

St. Joseph County Sheriff Brad Balk announced Tuesday he will retire at the end of January. Balk, 65, said his last day will be Jan. 31, 11 months before the end of his four-year elected term. Sheriff since 2009, Balk appeared before county commission members and read a one-page letter in which he stated his plans to step down. He …

A southwestern Michigan police chief has died after crashing his vehicle into a tree. Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Sgt. Craig Schmaltz says 59-year-old Nashville Police Chief Chris Allen Koster died in the crash about 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Richland Township. Investigators say Koster’s vehicle went off a road and struck a tree. No other passengers were in Koster’s vehicle at the …

State police officials are investigating the theft of a trailer from a location in Constantine Township. The incident occurred between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Thursday in the 12000 block of Miller Road. The trailer was white and made by Jayco. Its value is estimated to be $7,000, according to authorities.

A state police patrol car was struck while its driver was on patrol over the weekend along Interstate 94 in Calhoun County. According to a department media release, the trooper was driving in the westbound lane at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Beadle Lake Road, which is exit No. 100. The trooper had been patrolling a construction zone …

Cass County Sheriff’s deputies were called earlier this month to a single-vehicle accident on Pokagon Highway. According to Sheriff Richard Behnke, deputies were dispatched around 11 p.m. Aug. 15 to an area in the vicinity of Pokagon Highway and Oak Grove Road in LaGrange Township. Ardee Joseph-Louis Mabry, 36, of Battle Creek, told authorities he was driving east on Pokagon …

State police troopers were called over the weekend to a home in Branch County’s Sherwood Township regarding a domestic disturbance Troopers were dispatched Sunday to a residence where they learned the suspect had injured himself and fled on foot. A K-9 unit was summoned and led to the apprehension of the suspect in a nearby field. The suspect was transported …

The Michigan State Police have identified the man killed in a motorcycle accident Sunday night in Constantine Township. Troopers said that Spencer Minor, 28, of White Pigeon, was killed in the accident. He was riding his motorcycle southbound on U.S. 131 when another vehicle turned into his pathway, causing the accident. Minor was thrown from his bike into oncoming traffic. …

Two people were arrested in White Pigeon on drug charges Tuesday evening. The incident happened in the 500 block of E. Chicago Road in the village limits. A 52-year-old White Pigeon man and a 38-year-old Sturgis woman were both arrested at the scene. The man faces charges of possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house while …

Police say two men and a woman have been killed and a second woman has been wounded in shootings at a northern Indiana apartment complex. Elkhart police say one of the dead men is the suspected shooter. Elkhart County Homicide Unit Cmdr. Mark Daggy identified the dead victims as 66-year-old Gail Shields, her boyfriend, John Malk, along with the suspected …

Human remains found earlier this year in a northern Indiana cemetery have been confirmed to be those of a Michigan woman who vanished last year. The St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday that the Indiana State Police laboratory has verified the remains are those of 41-year-old Natily Nacole Franklin of Decatur, Michigan. The remains were discovered March 21 on …