Five people have been arrested in connection with the recent shooting of an Indiana state judge as well as his wife at the couple’s home.
In a statement, police said three of the suspects face counts of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the 18 January shooting of Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly, in Lafayette, Indiana.
The police identified those suspects as Raylen Ferguson, Thomas Moss and Blake Smith.
Police said the Meyers’ shooting was “a concerted effort to impede the proceedings” of a jury trial that was scheduled to begin for Moss in front of the judge two days later.
Like Moss, 32-year-old Smith is from Lafayette, police said. Ferguson, 38, is reportedly from Lexington, Kentucky, which is about 250 miles (400km) from Lafayette.
Officials were pursuing gang and firearm enhancements against Ferguson, Smith and Moss, which could subject them to stiffer punishments if they are eventually convicted, according to the Lafayette police. The police statement made it a point to describe Moss and Smith as “habitual offenders”, though the agency did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, 45-year-old Amanda Milsap of Lafayette is accused of bribery and obstruction of justice. And the Lafayette police’s statement accused Zenada Greer, 61, of Lexington, of assisting a criminal and obstruction of justice.
Steven Meyer released a statement on Wednesday in which he expressed gratitude for an “outpouring of support from friends, the community, court colleagues and law enforcement”.
“I want the community to know that I have strong faith in our judicial system,” said the statement from the Tippecanoe county superior court judge. “This horrific violence will not shake my belief in the importance of peacefully resolving disputes.
“I remain confident that we have the best judicial system in the world, and I am proud to be a part of it.”
Meyer’s statement also extended “heartfelt thanks” to his medical team, adding that he and his wife were “improving” and “healing”.
In a sworn statement cited by ABC News, police said the Meyers were shot through their closed front door. Surveillance footage from the couple’s home showed a masked man knock, claim he was looking for a dog and then fire a gun “from the porch through the door”.
The attack wounded Steven Meyer’s arm and injured Kimberly Meyer’s hip. Officers reported recovering shell casings from the scene.
Investigators later identified Ferguson as the shooter. The gun used in the shooting was purportedly bought by Smith, police wrote in the sworn statement. Both are said to be members of the same motorcycle gang as Moss.
The sworn statement says Greer lives with Ferguson and helped him travel to Lafayette at about the time of the shooting. Milsap is alleged to have unsuccessfully tried to pay $10,000 to the victim in Moss’s case in exchange for her “agreeing not to testify in [the] upcoming trial,” police wrote.
Several law enforcement agencies across multiple states joined the ensuing search for suspects in the double shooting. Among them were police in Lexington as well as in Allentown, Pennsylvania, along with the FBI and the US marshals.
Judges in the US for years have generally been grappling with escalating threats amid a growing trend of politically driven violence.
Notably, about 150 miles from Lexington, in Letcher county, Kentucky, local judge Kevin Mullins was shot to death in his judicial chambers in September 2024. Letcher’s sheriff, Shawn Stines, was charged in Mullins’s slaying.
The Meyers’ shooting caused alarm among other Indiana judges, and state supreme court chief justice Loretta Rush urged her fellow judiciary members to “remain vigilant in your own security”.
“I worry about the safety of all our judges,” Rush’s statement said. “As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe. Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable.”
