Key Takeaways
- Lt. Bill Benjamin, an off-duty police lieutenant, was shot in the leg during a confrontation with a 53-year-old man, Lamont Johnson, who died in the exchange.
- The incident occurred after Johnson allegedly knocked on the door of a woman’s home where Benjamin was present.
- Police are investigating the shooting as a potential self-defense case, with IMPD handling the criminal investigation and Lawrence police conducting an administrative review.
- The circumstances surrounding the shooting, including whether Johnson made it inside the home and who fired first, remain unclear; no charges have been announced yet.
- The tragic event highlights the legal standard for justifying deadly force, which requires an imminent threat of serious harm.
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INDIANAPOLIS, IN — An off-duty Lawrence Police Department lieutenant who retired from IMPD as a deputy chief was shot in the leg Friday night at a home on the east side of Indianapolis, and a 53-year-old man was killed in the same exchange of gunfire.
Lt. Bill Benjamin was inside the home with a woman who lives there when her ex-boyfriend allegedly showed up and began knocking on the door just after 10 p.m., as reported by WTHR. A confrontation escalated. Both men fired. Lamont Johnson, 53, died. Benjamin was shot in the leg and remains hospitalized.
Benjamin rose to deputy chief at IMPD before retiring in 2012 and now works as an officer in the Lawrence Police Department’s investigations division. A woman involved in the incident described him to WTHR as a friend.
Police say the shooting is preliminarily being called a self-defense shooting. IMPD is handling the criminal investigation. Lawrence police are running a separate administrative investigation, which looks only at whether Benjamin violated his department’s policies, rules or procedures, not at whether he broke the law. That second review is standard practice any time an officer fires a weapon.
The detail carrying the most weight is who was outside the door. Police describe an ex-boyfriend who showed up uninvited, at night, at the home where the woman lives, and started knocking.
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Deadly force is justified only against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. That is the same standard armed citizens across the country carry under every day, and it is the standard this shooting will be measured against. For now the defensive framing belongs to the police account, not to the record. Prosecutors make the final determination once IMPD finishes its work.
Johnson is dead and cannot give his account, which puts more weight than usual on physical evidence and on the accounts of the people who were inside. IMPD has not said who fired first, what was said at the door, or whether Johnson made it inside the home. No charging decision has been announced.
