On the evening of March 28, 2020, 20-year-old Tyler Terusiak was fatally shot in the 1400 block of Jefferson Avenue in La Porte, Indiana. The shooting also wounded Stanley Henderson. A 23-year-old man, Davion L. Jones of Chesterton, drove himself to the La Porte County Sheriff’s Department after the incident, told police about his firearm and gave a statement. Officers recovered a .40-caliber Glock with a 50-round magazine and four spent shell casings from his burgundy Pontiac Grand Am.

Jones said he had gone to the Jefferson Avenue location with his brother to pick up the brother’s girlfriend’s daughter and that a group across the street was threatening her. He claimed a man in that group pointed a small black handgun at him and that he fired several shots in response. Prosecutors charged Jones with murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery; he pleaded self-defense at a three-day trial. An independent witness testified they did not see Henderson with a gun, while the defense disputed that account. In December 2021, the jury acquitted Jones on all counts, accepting his self-defense claim; the jury did not return a verdict on a reckless homicide count the defense had asked them to consider.