Police shoot naked gunman near Indiana University

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Police officers in Bloomington shot a naked man who they say was firing a gun early Friday morning in a neighborhood near the Indiana University campus.

Police didn’t immediately identify the man, who was taken to a hospital. Capt. Joe Qualters said in a news release later that the man was in surgery. Police didn’t say how badly the gunman was wounded. Qualters described the man as college age, but did not say if he was a student.

Officers called to the scene shortly before 7 a.m. saw the man leave an alley a few blocks southwest of Memorial Stadium, waving a gun around, police said.

Qualters said officers told the man to stop, but he pointed the gun at one of the officers, who shot him. When the man sat up and lifted his gun toward the second officer, that officer also shot him, Qualters said.

No other injuries were reported. The back door of a house and three cars were damaged by 9mm bullets, Qualters said.

IU spokesman Mark Land said the school didn’t issue an alert because the situation was off campus and ended so quickly.

By the time campus police arrived at the scene, city police officers had already captured the gunman, Land said.

Land said IU’s text and email alert system is designed to warn students of imminent or ongoing threats on or near campus. “In this case, the facts of the situation didn’t rise to the level where we would issue an alert,” he said.

“If they hadn’t caught him, and there was an ongoing search, we probably would have issued an alert,” Land said.

Qualters said police initially were told there was a man screaming and setting off fireworks, but another call two minutes later reported a naked man was firing a gun into the rear of a house.