WBIW.com News - local

Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana

Shooting Death Involving Police Officers Still Under Investigation

Last updated on Saturday, November 30, 2013

(NASHVILLE) - The details of a shooting involving a police officer are emerging.

According to Indiana State Police the shooting happened on Thanksgiving when officers attempted to arrest 44-year-old Troy Harden.

Harden was killed by police who came to his home.

Harden has a lengthy criminal record including convictions for battery, resisting arrest and illegal handgun possession, and driving offenses that resulted in a lifetime driver's license suspension.

But his most notorious crime-related story came in 2007, when he witnessed the murders of two men. The men's decomposing bodies were found stuffed into storage barrels on Jerry Pelfree's property west of Bloomington.

Harden testified against Pelfree at his murder trial in 2009, sealing Pelfree's fate.

According to Harden, he was there when Pelfree shot and killed 35-year-old Douglas Brown and 23-year-old Everett Shaw at Pelfree's mobile home.

Harden told police Pelfree shot Brown in the head four times as he sat on Pelfree's couch in March 2007. That same day, Pelfree shot Shaw eight times in the head.

During Pelfree's trial, Harden told jurors that when Brown's 6-foot-4 body would not fit inside a barrel he was using to dispose of the man's remains, Pelfree got a saw and cut off Brown's legs to make him fit. Harden said Pelfree also used a maul to smash the bodies so they would fit in the barrels.

He also helped Pelfree power wash the gravel under a carport and clean bloodstained carpet in the living room. Harden and Pelfree then burned the couch Brown had been sitting on when he was shot.

Pelfree received 130 years in prison for killing the men. He currently is incarcerated at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.

Harden pleaded guilty to assisting a criminal for his role in helping dispose of the bodies. He got no jail time because he cooperated with police. But he was sentenced to house arrest for four years and then placed on probation for a year.

But according to police, Harden violated his probation and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Officers went to Harden's home in Annandale Estates, northwest of Nashville, about 9 p.m. Thursday to arrest him and that is when the shooting happened.

The Indiana State Police were called in to investigate the shooting death. As of Saturday morning no other details have been released about Harden's death.

1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com

© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Click here to go back to previous page