Charges filed against man, 86, shot by police
Officers found suicide note in dining room
After Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers shot Richard Bures, they found a suicide note lying on his dining room table.
In it, Bures explained that he had been living with cancer and no longer wanted to deal with all the tests.
“They would find him in the barn and that he will finally have peace,” the note stated, according to the probable cause filed against Bures.
At 86 years old, Bures was tired. He’d been dealing with kidney cancer for two years and had not seen any progress with his treatment.
Before his illness, his wife described him to the police as an active person, but that began to change during the past year.
Bures, a military veteran, was still working from his house as a water pump specialist, rebuilding and customizing old pumps for various applications from antique, high-performance, industrial, and agricultural needs throughout the United States. Then came the morning of July 2. That morning, his wife left their Vermont Street home on the west side of the city around 8 a.m. thinking Bures would be going to the Veterans Affairs hospital for an appointment. Instead, police say in court documents, he took an early-1900s Harrington and Richardson .32 caliber revolver, went to his greenhouse and shot himself in the abdomen.
Bures then called 911 to inform police he had been shot by a white man, in a white shirt and jeans. He was describing himself to the dispatcher, which police were unaware of at the time.
When officers arrived at his house, Bures walked outside holding onto the revolver with blood coming from his lower abdomen, according to court documents.
After noticing Bures was armed, police took cover behind trees in front of the house and began ordering Bures to drop his gun.
Bures aimed his weapon at police as they ordered him to drop the firearm nearly 20 times, police said that day.
One responding officer who did not fire his weapon saw Bures pull the trigger but the revolver was not discharging.
Bures then yelled at the police that he was going to start reloading his gun, lowered the revolver in front of him and “appeared to be manipulating the firearm.” When he raised the revolver toward police again, officers Dustin Pervine and Peter Tomlinson fired nine shots at him.
Bures fell to the ground and dropped the weapon.
When she arrived home, Bures’ wife found police investigating, bullet holes littered the side of her home and her husband was being taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds.
On the way to the hospital, Bures told paramedics multiple times that he had shot himself twice and wanted to die, court documents and police reports from the day of the shooting indicate. At the hospital, he continued telling medical staff that he wanted to die, and began pulling at the IVs and the intubation tubes attached to him.
After being treated for his injuries, it was determined Bures had suffered gunshot wounds to his right shoulder, face and lower abdomen.
“I’m saddened to be here. Once again we find ourselves in a situation where trauma ripples within our community and I recognize the impact that this has on our community involved and our officers,” Assistant Chief Michael Wooley said to the media on July 2 from the shooting scene.
Days after being shot, the Marion County Prosecutor’s office filed a red flag petition, which could allow police to seize Bures’ firearms if a judge agrees it’s needed.
Bures also is facing a criminal misdemeanor charge for “pointing a firearm at another person. (Firearm UnLoaded)”
The two Indianapolis police officers who fired their weapons have been placed on administrative leave as is standard procedure in an officer-involved shooting investigation.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police did not provide a comment when asked if the officers involved with the shooting were back on active duty, the current status of the investigation or elaborate on what charges the department recommended to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, specifically citing its internal investigation.
Bures’ condition was unknown as of Thursday morning, and attempts to reach his wife were unsuccessful.
He was the eighth person shot by an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer this year.
Mayor Joe Hogsett and Police Chief Chris Bailey announced in mid-April that the Department of Justice would conduct an extensive review of shootings by police after a sharp spike in 2023 when officers were involved in 17 shootings that killed or injured someone. A timeline for when the results of that review would be released hasn’t been provided.