Michigan City officer's shooting of South Bend man ruled justified due to 'deadly threat'
The actions of a Michigan City officer who fatally shot a South Bend man during a pursuit in April 2025 were ruled justified.
On May 29, the Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney's office, acting as special prosecutor, found that the officer who shot a man on April 4 was legally justified in using deadly force to defend himself.
Michigan City Police identified the officer who fired his gun as Sgt. Michael Oberle — a 15-year veteran of the department, The Tribune's reporting partners at WNDU-TV said — however a report from the prosecutor's office does not identify the officer by name.
A Michigan City officer conducted a traffic stop around 5:30 p.m. at the 5800 block of South Franklin Street, near Walmart, for driving without headlights in reduced visibility, a Michigan City Police Department press release said.
The driver and passenger in the car gave the officer their names. However, the passenger's name, who identified himself as 'Jose Martinez,' was associated with several active warrants, the prosecutor's office said. The officer began to investigate if the passenger was the same man, the prosecutor's press release said, but at this time, the passenger, who was later identified as Jose Meza, fled from the vehicle.
Multiple officers, including Oberle, pursued Meza — a 21-year-old from South Bend — and observed Meza pull a firearm from his waistband and point it at the officers, the prosecutor's office said. Oberle was backing up the officer that initially conducted the traffic stop, Michigan City Police Chief Marty Corley told The Tribune. Meza fled across parking lots and hedges at a business before pointing his gun at Oberle, the prosecutor said.
'Believing that Meza posed a deadly threat, (Oberle) fired multiple shots, striking Meza,' the prosecutor's office report said.
Meza fell to the ground, began to reach for his gun and Oberle fired two more shots, the prosecutor said. Meza was rendered first aid and transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the press release said.
Indiana State Police District 13 Criminal Investigations Division investigated the shooting, finding evidence that showed Meza attempted to fire multiple times, but his gun malfunctioned, the prosecutor's office said.
Oberle was placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation, a press release from Michigan City Police Department said.
Indiana State Police presented the investigation to the county prosecutor's office for further review on May 21. The investigation is now closed, Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney Jacob R. Taulman said in a news release, and no charges were filed against Oberle.
Email Tribune staff writer Camille Sarabia at csarabia@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Michigan City cop faces no charges as fatal shooting ruled 'justified'
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New York Times
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- New York Times
Live Updates: Israel and Iran Trade New Strikes on 9th Day of War
President Trump was angry. Earlier this month, Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, had posted a three-and-half-minute video to social media describing her visit to Hiroshima, Japan, and outlining the horrors caused by the detonation of a nuclear weapon there 80 years ago. Speaking directly to the camera, Ms. Gabbard warned that the threat of nuclear war remained. 'As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,' she said, 'political elites and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tension between nuclear powers.' Mr. Trump berated Ms. Gabbard for the video, according to two people briefed on the conversation. He said that her discussion of nuclear annihilation would scare people and that officials should not talk about it. Mr. Trump's displeasure with the video laid bare months of his skepticism of Ms. Gabbard and frustrations with her. 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Mr. Trump told Ms. Gabbard that if she wanted to run for president, she should not be in the administration, one of the people briefed on the meeting said. Image Ms. Gabbard and her husband, Abraham Williams, at her swearing-in at the White House in February. Credit... Eric Lee/The New York Times While Ms. Gabbard is a former Democrat, her credentials as a critic of America's long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as a skeptic of foreign military interventions appeal to Mr. Trump's base, and her views dovetail with those of some of his other advisers. Her supporters are openly advocating that the president keep her. 'The president needs someone who will give him the right intelligence information, whether he likes it or not,' said Daniel L. Davis, an analyst at the think tank Defense Priorities, which advocates a restrained foreign policy. 'If you put someone else in there, they might only tell him what he wants to hear.' 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Mr. Trump's implication was that unlike Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Gabbard did not have what it took to succeed in politics. Image Ms. Gabbard with Mr. Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tucker Carlson during a campaign event in Georgia in October. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times And soon after her swearing-in, he began to complain about her effectiveness. At the same time, Mr. Trump — long mistrustful of the intelligence community — questioned whether there needed to be an Office of the Director of National Intelligence at all. A senior intelligence official said Ms. Gabbard had overseen a 25 percent cut in the size of her office. And Ms. Gabbard has repeatedly told people in the White House that she is willing to be the last director of national intelligence, according to an official. The office, Ms. Gabbard said, could be reabsorbed into the C.I.A., or become something akin to the National Security Council, a bare-bones oversight group. 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But Ms. Gabbard had also noted Iran's large stocks of enriched uranium and a shift in tone that was 'likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran's decision-making apparatus.' But Mr. Trump's Air Force One remark came off as a rebuke. To a certain extent, some officials said, courting Mr. Trump's displeasure is a hazard of any intelligence job in his administration. Mr. Trump believes the intelligence community undermined him in his first term, and his long-held skepticism that it is part of a disloyal deep state continues. Ms. Gabbard, when briefing Mr. Trump, presents a range of options and assessments. But it is difficult to talk about the findings of spy agencies and not raise Mr. Trump's ire, the official said. Ms. Gabbard's most important job as director of national intelligence is overseeing, and delivering, the president's daily intelligence brief. But the brief is actually produced a few miles from her office at the C.I.A., and many of those working on the document are detailed from the agency. Ms. Gabbard announced internally last month that she would physically move the production of the brief to her headquarters, known as Liberty Crossing. Within the administration, several senior officials saw it as a way to try to enhance her own relevance at a time when Mr. Trump was questioning the relevance of the office. Others said it was an expensive decision that would be logistically difficult to carry out. Ultimately, the White House put the move on pause, according to multiple people briefed on the matter. Ms. Gabbard has influential defenders inside and outside the government. Mr. Vance, seen as the most senior voice for a less hawkish, more restrained foreign policy, issued a long social media post defending the administration's support of Israel's attack on Iran. He added to that a message supporting Ms. Gabbard. 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New York Times
13 minutes ago
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Israel-Iran ConflictLive Updates: Israel and Iran Trade New Strikes on 9th Day of War
President Trump was angry. Earlier this month, Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, had posted a three-and-half-minute video to social media describing her visit to Hiroshima, Japan, and outlining the horrors caused by the detonation of a nuclear weapon there 80 years ago. Speaking directly to the camera, Ms. Gabbard warned that the threat of nuclear war remained. 'As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,' she said, 'political elites and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tension between nuclear powers.' Mr. Trump berated Ms. Gabbard for the video, according to two people briefed on the conversation. He said that her discussion of nuclear annihilation would scare people and that officials should not talk about it. Mr. Trump's displeasure with the video laid bare months of his skepticism of Ms. Gabbard and frustrations with her. The president and some administration officials viewed her overseas travel, as the video exemplified, as being as much about self-promotion of her political career as it was about the business of government, multiple officials said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal dynamics of the administration. But the tensions surrounding Ms. Gabbard are now in the open, as Mr. Trump considers mounting a military strike on Iran. Ms. Gabbard, a critic of overseas entanglements, has privately raised concerns of a wider war. And on Friday Mr. Trump said 'she's wrong' when he was asked about her testimony in March that Iran had not decided to build a nuclear weapon. After the video was posted, the president also told Ms. Gabbard that he was disappointed in her, and wished she had used better judgment, according to one of the two people briefed on the conversation. He told Ms. Gabbard that he believed she was using her time working for him to set herself up for higher office. Mr. Trump told Ms. Gabbard that if she wanted to run for president, she should not be in the administration, one of the people briefed on the meeting said. Image Ms. Gabbard and her husband, Abraham Williams, at her swearing-in at the White House in February. Credit... Eric Lee/The New York Times While Ms. Gabbard is a former Democrat, her credentials as a critic of America's long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as a skeptic of foreign military interventions appeal to Mr. Trump's base, and her views dovetail with those of some of his other advisers. Her supporters are openly advocating that the president keep her. 'The president needs someone who will give him the right intelligence information, whether he likes it or not,' said Daniel L. Davis, an analyst at the think tank Defense Priorities, which advocates a restrained foreign policy. 'If you put someone else in there, they might only tell him what he wants to hear.' Mr. Davis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, was Ms. Gabbard's choice for a top intelligence role before criticism from Republicans over his skepticism of Israel's war in Gaza forced her to rescind the appointment. There is no question, officials said, that Ms. Gabbard's standing has been weakened and that she is embattled. But few in the administration want to see her depart. Some say she has people who like her, while others worry about who might replace her. Two officials said that Mr. Trump's anger over the video had faded and that they were back on better terms. Ms. Gabbard continues to brief the president regularly and speaks often to John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, who held Ms. Gabbard's job in the first Trump administration, according to multiple officials. In a statement, the White House press office dismissed any notion she has been sidelined. Steven Cheung, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Trump had 'full confidence' in his national security team. 'D.N.I. Gabbard is an important member of the president's team and her work continues to serve him and this country well,' Mr. Cheung said. Ms. Gabbard was an aggressive supporter of Mr. Trump on the 2024 campaign trail. He and his top advisers valued her input, especially when Mr. Trump was preparing to debate Vice President Kamala Harris — whom Ms. Gabbard had memorably attacked in a Democratic primary debate in 2019. After the election, Mr. Trump quickly decided to nominate her for director of national intelligence. But from the beginning he made clear to associates that he harbored some doubts. Mr. Trump, according to associates, saw her as overly interested in her own success. Mr. Trump drew a contrast between Ms. Gabbard and the other former Democrat he named to his cabinet, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 'Bobby's a star,' Mr. Trump told one associate. 'Tulsi? Tulsi wants to be a star.' Mr. Trump's implication was that unlike Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Gabbard did not have what it took to succeed in politics. Image Ms. Gabbard with Mr. Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tucker Carlson during a campaign event in Georgia in October. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times And soon after her swearing-in, he began to complain about her effectiveness. At the same time, Mr. Trump — long mistrustful of the intelligence community — questioned whether there needed to be an Office of the Director of National Intelligence at all. A senior intelligence official said Ms. Gabbard had overseen a 25 percent cut in the size of her office. And Ms. Gabbard has repeatedly told people in the White House that she is willing to be the last director of national intelligence, according to an official. The office, Ms. Gabbard said, could be reabsorbed into the C.I.A., or become something akin to the National Security Council, a bare-bones oversight group. At least for a time, the kind of foreign policy restraint Ms. Gabbard favors appeared to gain traction this spring. In White House discussions about Israel and Iran, Ms. Gabbard raised the range of possible consequences of an Israeli strike against Iran, saying it could trigger a wider conflict that brought in the United States. Vice President JD Vance, at times also a skeptic of military intervention, made similar arguments and was among those who supported Mr. Trump's impulse to initially try to negotiate a deal with Iran. As the C.I.A. delivered intelligence reports that Israel intended to strike Iran regardless, Mr. Trump and senior aides became more publicly supportive of the Israeli campaign. Ms. Gabbard did not attend a key meeting at Camp David, where Mr. Ratcliffe presented assessments about Iran's nuclear program. Ms. Gabbard, according to officials, was on Army Reserve duty. Other people with knowledge of the matter have said she was not invited. (Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Ms. Gabbard had met daily with Mr. Trump and his team.) Then on Tuesday, Mr. Trump contradicted Ms. Gabbard in public. After the Israeli strikes began, a journalist on Air Force One asked Mr. Trump about Ms. Gabbard's testimony in March that Iran had not decided to make a nuclear bomb. 'I don't care what she said,' Mr. Trump said. 'I think they were very close to having it.' He made similar comments on Friday. Image Mr. Trump, aboard Air Force One this week, contradicted Ms. Gabbard's assessment of Iran's nuclear program. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times An official from Ms. Gabbard's office said her position was not at odds with Mr. Trump's. In her testimony, Ms. Gabbard reported the consensus opinion of the intelligence community: that Iran's supreme leader had not authorized the country to build a nuclear weapon. But Ms. Gabbard had also noted Iran's large stocks of enriched uranium and a shift in tone that was 'likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran's decision-making apparatus.' But Mr. Trump's Air Force One remark came off as a rebuke. To a certain extent, some officials said, courting Mr. Trump's displeasure is a hazard of any intelligence job in his administration. Mr. Trump believes the intelligence community undermined him in his first term, and his long-held skepticism that it is part of a disloyal deep state continues. Ms. Gabbard, when briefing Mr. Trump, presents a range of options and assessments. But it is difficult to talk about the findings of spy agencies and not raise Mr. Trump's ire, the official said. Ms. Gabbard's most important job as director of national intelligence is overseeing, and delivering, the president's daily intelligence brief. But the brief is actually produced a few miles from her office at the C.I.A., and many of those working on the document are detailed from the agency. Ms. Gabbard announced internally last month that she would physically move the production of the brief to her headquarters, known as Liberty Crossing. Within the administration, several senior officials saw it as a way to try to enhance her own relevance at a time when Mr. Trump was questioning the relevance of the office. Others said it was an expensive decision that would be logistically difficult to carry out. Ultimately, the White House put the move on pause, according to multiple people briefed on the matter. Ms. Gabbard has influential defenders inside and outside the government. Mr. Vance, seen as the most senior voice for a less hawkish, more restrained foreign policy, issued a long social media post defending the administration's support of Israel's attack on Iran. He added to that a message supporting Ms. Gabbard. He also released a statement calling her a 'patriot.' Her supporters insist that she remains relevant and that, over time, her skepticism of American intervention in Ukraine and caution on military action against Iran will once more prevail. The possible delay of any decision by Mr. Trump to strike Iran represents an opportunity for diplomacy and critics of American military intervention to make the case for restraint, some of Ms. Gabbard's supporters said. Olivia C. Coleman, a spokeswoman for Ms. Gabbard's office, dismissed the reports of dissatisfaction or tensions with the White House as 'lies made up by bored, irrelevant anonymous sources with nothing better to do than sow fake division.' 'The director,' Ms. Coleman said, 'remains focused on her mission: providing accurate and actionable intelligence to the president, cleaning up the deep state and keeping the American people safe, secure and free.'
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
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Woman Says She Will No Longer Participate in Her Boyfriend's Family Events After Several Slights: ‘I Don't Feel Welcome'
A woman shared on Reddit that she and her boyfriend have been kept at a distance by his family The woman was upset that her boyfriend's sister-in-law didn't postpone her pregnancy announcement for a few days so that the couple could be present The woman now refuses to attend any family events due to feeling slightedA woman claims her boyfriend's family has kept her at a distance — and now she doesn't want to have anything to do with them. In a post on Reddit's "Am I the A------" forum, the 31-year-old woman detailed her fractured relationship with her boyfriend's family. The couple has been together for almost three years, and in the beginning, his family members 'were kind and really put in effort to get to know me," the OP (original poster) said. "His sister (27F) and his sister-in-law (29F) would text me to plan dinner together, we'd work out together, etc. The feeling was mutual," she continued. But then things began to change. 'Slowly, I've noticed them both distancing themselves from me with no apparent reason to my knowledge,' she wrote. According to the OP, her boyfriend's brother once reached out to ask if the couple wanted to go to Hawaii with him and his wife. The OP and her boyfriend took a few hours to consider and then said yes. 'His brother responds back saying 'never mind, we decided to go with a smaller group' essentially just removing us since everyone else was still going,' she claimed. 'They went on their trip and blocked me and my bf from seeing their social media stories (to this day we're still blocked but haven't spoken up about it to them). There was never an apology or an attempt to communicate what happened, it was just swept under the rug.' The OP also mentioned another incident in which the family had texted them to come over on a Thursday night. She and her boyfriend couldn't attend, but told the family they would see them that Sunday, which was Father's Day. 'The sister texts us a video that night that the SIL/brother are announcing their first pregnancy and that we missed it," she wrote. "There was no attempt to reschedule the announcement so that we could all be present for it. They could've easily said the news on Father's Day, just days later.' Feeling upset and slighted, the woman had a conversation with her boyfriend and expressed her 'concerns that his family is making it clear they don't value our presence." "Whenever we go over to the family home, it feels like everyone goes quiet and dilutes their personality until we leave," she noted. The conversation ended with the OP telling her boyfriend that she will no longer attend his family's events, nor will she congratulate the sister-in-law on her pregnancy due to her "standoffish" behavior. 'I will not go where I don't feel welcome. Today he went to the family home alone and I stayed at home," the OP finished her post, asking fellow Redditors, "AITA [am I the a------]?" For many users, the answer was a resounding yes. Some suggested that she was wrongly perceiving certain situations as slights. 'You can't expect someone to postpone their pregnancy announcement — they invited you, and they shared the video afterwards," one person wrote. "They are allowed to keep that separate from Father's Day, and to share the information with people separately. And refusing to congratulate his SIL is just churlish. It is almost always better to build bridges than burn them." Others questioned whether the woman was leaving facts out of her post to explain why there is a perceived distance between her and the boyfriend's family. 'This sounds a bit like a situation where there are missing reasons somewhere,' a reader said. 'The expectation that they postpone pregnancy announcement is too much." The same reader suspected that the family 'slowly distanced themselves for some reasons you are choosing to not analyze.' However, other commenters sympathized with the OP — particularly regarding the Hawaii invite that was rescinded — and encouraged a direct conversation. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 'I'd want closure, and if I have to make family dinner awkward for everyone to get that closure, I will,' one person wrote. 'Then let them know that since they don't see you as family, that you will not be treating them as such and simply cut them off.' Read the original article on People
