Grand jury presses no charges in Ball State police shooting death

MUNCIE -- The father of a Ball State University student shot by a campus police officer said the family was considering legal action after a grand jury cleared the officer of any criminal wrongdoing.\nA Delaware County grand jury decided Monday not to indict Officer Robert Duplain, who shot and killed 21-year-old Michael McKinney of Bedford while responding to a call of a stranger pounding on the door of a near-campus house.\nThe university said administrators had decided the 24-year-old rookie officer will be assigned to a non-patrol position after he completes training scheduled to begin Jan. 5 at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.\n"The University's wrong to continue keeping him on the police force," McKinney's father, Tim McKinney, said. "This guy's lack of judgment caused the death of my son."\nHe said the family was considering filing a lawsuit and had retained Geoffrey Fieger, a Michigan attorney who represented Dr. Jack Kevorkian.\nAfter three days of hearings and about three hours of deliberations, jurors cleared Duplain of any criminal wrongdoing in the Nov. 8 shooting, said Prosecutor Richard Reed, who requested the grand jury review.\nMcKinney's family members said they were not surprised by the grand jury's findings.\n"It's something that's a rubber stamp to appease the public. The whole grand jury process was," said Ryan McKinney, Michael's brother.\nRyan and Tim McKinney said the investigation should have been turned over to the Indiana State Police and a special prosecutor.\n"We've all known in our family here that Officer Duplain was not going to be held accountable," Tim McKinney said. "I just don't believe in my heart the prosecutor's office seriously intended to robustly prosecute the case. I think it was politically expedient for the grand jury to be called."\nDuplain has not spoken publicly about the shooting and could not be located Monday for comment. No home number is listed in his name in the Muncie area, and a message seeking comment was left for him at the campus police station.\nDuplain and a witness who lives at a neighboring house have said McKinney lunged at the officer and did not follow commands to stop before the shots were fired, striking him four times.\nFriends who were with McKinney before the shooting said he had been drinking at near-campus bars that night and probably thought he was at a friend's similar-looking home seven houses away from where he was shot.\nBlood tests determined that McKinney had a blood-alcohol content of 0.34 percent, about four times higher than the state's legal limit of 0.08 percent to drive.\nDuplain had been with the police force of the 18,000-student school for seven months and had not yet attended the state's police training academy.\nUniversity police officials were expected to complete an internal investigation of the shooting by Jan. 4.\n"Based upon the statements eyewitnesses have made to the Muncie police and the other information gathered so far in the internal review, it does not appear that Officer Duplain violated the relevant departmental policies or procedures," said Douglas McConkey, Ball State's vice president for student affairs.