Indiana judge and his wife shot at their front door by suspect who claimed to have found their lost dog, police say
Steven Meyer’s shooting comes months after two Minnesota lawmakers were shot and one state governor was targeted in an arson attack
An Indiana judge and his wife were shot at their home on Sunday, just weeks after the jurist announced his plans to retire.
Authorities raced to Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly’s, address in Lafayette, not far from Purdue University’s campus, at 2.17 pm on Sunday after reports of a shooting on the block came in.
Meyer is a well-known judge in the area who rose to prominence for presiding over several of the state’s most controversial cases, including a dispute between Ukrainian adoptee Natalia Grace Barnett and her American family.
The highly publicized court battle saw Grace Barnett’s family accusing her of using her rare form of dwarfism to appear as though she was younger than she was.
Now, Meyer has been left with an injury to his arm after Sunday’s shooting, while his wife suffered an injury to her hip, according to a statement from the Lafayette Police Department.
The shooter reportedly got the couple’s attention by pretending to have found their dog, before opening fire through a door and fleeing.
Now, a desperate search for the mysterious shooter has been launched, with the LPD drafting in state police, the local sheriff’s office, the West Lafayette Police Department, the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office, and the FBI.
The probe uncovered shell casings at the couple’s address, but has yet to uncover the identity of the attacker. Speaking to the NYT, police also confirmed that both the judge and his wife are in a stable condition.
Kimberley Meyer also shared a statement with the newspaper thanking authorities and emergency workers for their support.
Her husband, Judge Meyer, is most known for presiding over the Natalia Grace Barnett case, with the judge dismissing counts of neglect of a dependent levied against the Ukrainian adoptee’s American family.
The family had legally changed Grace Barnett’s birth year from 2003 to 1989, making it impossible to claim that she had been dependent upon them. However, her birth year was later reverted to 2003.
The scandal later served as the basis for the plotline of Hulu’s Good American Family, which featured Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo as Grace Barnett’s adoptive mother.
In a separate case, Meyer jailed a father for 24 years after he left a gun unattended, which was used by his 5-year-old son to shoot his 1-year-old brother. According to the Journal & Courier, Meyer described the shooting as a “sadly predictable” tragedy.
Last December, he announced plans to put down his gavel for good at the end of the year, as he retires as Judge of Tippecanoe Superior Court 2.
As the investigation into Meyer’s own shooting continues, there has been a flood of support for the state court judge and his wife from fellow lawmakers.
In a statement given to Indiana judges and seen by NBC News, the state Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush said she was “deeply grateful” that Steven and Kimberley Meyer had survived.
"I worry about the safety of all our judges. As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe," Rush said. "Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable. As public servants, you are dedicated to the rule of law."
The shooting of the Meyers is the latest attack on lawmakers, with last year seeing an arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, as well as the murders of Democratic Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in Minnesota.
On the same day as the Hortman shooting, Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot. However, both Hoffmans survived the attack.
Controversial right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was also shot and killed during that same year while speaking at an event in Utah.
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