Hostage shooting deemed acceptable\nLAFAYETTE -- Police officers acted properly when they fired more than two dozen shots at a car fleeing a homicide scene last week, injuring a woman who was being held hostage in the trunk of the car, authorities said Wednesday.\nThe two Lafayette police officers who fired 12 shots at the car's tires on Nov. 25 knew a hostage might be in the car, they said. But the report released by Tippecanoe County Sheriff Smokey Anderson and city Police Chief Don Roush said two sheriff's deputies who fired 13 rounds from their semiautomatic M-16s at the driver were not aware of anyone else in the car.\nBullet fragments struck the hostage, Andrea L. Browell, 53, in the head. She remained in serious but stable condition Wednesday at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.\n"I see absolutely no need to change any policy," Anderson said. "They used appropriate deadly force."\nRoush called the officers' actions "a pretty sound decision based on what (information) they had."\nSeparate police shooting review boards determined that the four officers -- Sgt. Tom Davidson, Officer John Wells and Deputies Jason Huber and Joe Conn -- were justified in using deadly force to stop William L. Lile Jr., 43.\nLile, who was injured in the shooting, has been jailed on a murder charge for the shooting death of Browell's son, Eric S. Gilley, 25, in her home.\n"We've got a man on a murderous rampage ... and he's trying to escape," Roush said.\nAnderson said Browell's family has been supportive of the police action because they believed Lile would have killed Browell, his former girlfriend.
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