Officer

Neighbors of a St. Joseph County officer say he caught a suspected burglar on his property, but had to fire his gun into the ground to get the suspect to comply. This happened in South Bend on East Randolph Street Thursday night. Neighbors told WSBT they noticed a suspicious man on the property and alerted the officer who owned it. The off-duty officer, Cpl. Rick Morton, went with another person who lived in the neighborhood to check it out. The officer reportedly told the suspect several times to get on the ground, but the suspect ignored him. That's when neighbors say the officer fired his weapon into the ground.

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY — A St. Joseph County officer is off the job Monday after he was hurt while making a Sunday arrest. Police were called to the 17000 block of Irongate Court in northern St. Joseph County where 18-year-old Daniel Kocks was threatening to kill his parents and throwing things at them. When police tried to arrest Kocks, he started throwing punches at them. Corporal Nick Hartley went to the hospital for a sprain to his lower back. Kocks faces charges for battery, intimidation and resisting arrest.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Police in Lafayette say a woman who was found naked on a neighborhood street hit and tried to bite an officer. Tippecanoe County court records say police received calls late Wednesday about the 34-year-old woman being nude outside her home on the city's south side. The Journal & Courier reports that police say the woman told officers that she was showing what the police had done when she had been pulled over in the past. The woman is accused of yelling and rushing at the officer, then trying to grab his stun gun's holster and asking for his gun "so she could kill him. " She was jailed on charges of battery, resisting arrest and public nudity.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A central Indiana police officer wounded last year during a traffic stop shooting is back on duty patrolling the streets of a small Hancock County town. WTHR-TV reports that Fortville officer Matt Fox returned to duty Tuesday with his police dog, Lannie. He had been on limited desk duty since October while recovering from his gunshot wounds. Fox was shot in the wrist and forehead in July by a man he was trying to pull over for a missing tail light.

MICHIGAN CITY -- A 19-year-old Michigan City man who police say ran from a traffic stop and was shot while struggling with an officer over his gun was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors on Monday. A state police news release detailed the events: On Wednesday, June 20, two Michigan City officers in uniforms and assigned to the Safe Streets Team stopped a 2011 Chevy Malibu for an alleged traffic violation on Welnetz Road at 5:53 p.m. Four people were in the car, including Daniel Sherrod Jr. Sherrod ran from the traffic stop scene, with one of the two officers in pursuit.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A former western Indiana police officer has been sentenced to two years of in-home detention after pleading guilty to sexual battery of a child. Forty-nine-year-old Carl Graham was sentenced Tuesday after a Vigo County judge accepted his plea on the felony count. Graham had been scheduled to go on trial Tuesday on three counts of child molestation. Prosecutors alleged that he touched a 13-year-old child sexually at his home in 2007.

ROCHESTER - Fulton County police say an officer escaped injury Friday afternoon when his vehicle was side-swiped by a semi during a traffic stop. Shortly after 2 p.m. Fulton County Sheriff's Sergeant Ed Beaird, a 29-year-year veteran of the department, had stopped someone for speeding and was on the shoulder of southbound U.S. 31 near County Road 150 North. Police say 57-year-old Monte Hipes of Marion was driving a semi hauling an empty flatbed when for an undetermined reason he drove off the west side of U.S. 31, destroying the driver's side of Beaird's Ford Expedition.

Scary moments for a Benton Harbor family Friday after their 3-year-old boy was found trapped in a car window that wouldn't roll down. It happened in the 400 block of North Euclid Avenue just after 5:30 p.m. Responding officer Steve Morrow had to break the window to free the child. The boy was not breathing and did not have a pulse, but Morrow was able to revive him. The child was taken to Lakeland Hospital, and then transported to Bronson Hospital for further care.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - He's in uniform and apparently on duty. But New Mexico State Police say the officer caught on camera having sex with a woman on the hood of a car did not commit a crime. Video from a security camera of the encounter at the county-owned Canyon Ranch surfaced about two weeks ago. State police spokesman Tim Johnson tells KQRE-TV ( http://bit.ly/qOPJ6t ) an internal investigation has been done and the agency does not believe a crime occurred.

A 25-year-old Elkhart man was arrested at 2 a.m. Monday after an Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department officer noticed something odd. The officer saw Saul Vazquez riding a bicycle - with rifle cases taped to the bike - in the area of County Road 45/County Road 18.    When the officer tried to stop Vazquez, he ran but was later caught. According to the police report, Vazquez admitted burglarizing an Elkhart residence. Preliminary charges against the Elkhart man are burglary and resisting law enforcement.