Lawsuit filed over shooting last year by South Bend officer

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - A man who was badly injured last year after being shot by a South Bend police officer claims in a lawsuit that he was the victim of excessive force.

The lawsuit filed in St. Joseph County court says 28-year-old Terrance Eppenger suffered an unspecified permanent disability from the March 2018 shooting by officer Samuel Chaput.

South Bend also faces a lawsuit over the June shooting death of a black man by a white officer that has drawn scrutiny to the city's mayor, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj).

The South Bend Tribune reports police say Eppenger began hitting the officer who responded when Eppenger refused to leave a duplex. Police say they fell to the ground and Chaput fired one shot.

Eppenger faces felony battery and resisting arrest charges.

City officials declined to comment.