2 Indianapolis officers plead not guilty after indictment for shooting Black man asleep in car

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers indicted for shooting a Black man who was sleeping in a car outside his grandmother’s house entered not guilty pleas Monday.

Officers Carl Chandler and Alexander Gregory entered the pleas to charges of battery and criminal recklessness charges.

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears announced Friday that a grand jury had indicted Gregory and Chandler in connection with the Dec. 31 predawn shooting of Anthony Maclin on the city’s north side.

The officers’ attorneys issued a statement Friday saying the officers acted in accordance with their training to defend their lives when a subject grabbed a gun and raised it toward them.”

“Video, testimonial, and other evidence will establish the legality of their actions,” attorneys John Kautzman and Edward Merchant said in the statement.

Maclin’s attorney, Stephen Wagner, has said the officers fired at least 30 shots, hitting his client three times and leaving him hospitalized for 17 days for six surgeries.

Police had found Maclin asleep with a gun next to him in the driver’s seat before officers knocked on a car window and said, “Police. Hands up,” the police department said in a news release at the time.