Man shot by police at Evansville airport booked into jail
EVANSVILLE — The man who was shot by police at Evansville Regional Airport on Nov. 18 was released from the hospital Sunday and booked into the Vanderburgh County jail.
The police previously identified the man as 24-year-old Pierre Robson Barthelemy, who stands accused of moving toward city police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers in the airport's lobby while holding a kitchen knife in the moments before law enforcement officers opened fire.
Barthelemy was preliminarily charged with five offenses, including intimidation with a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony, and resisting law enforcement, a Level 6 felony. As of Tuesday morning, he was being held at the Vanderburgh County jail on a $100,000 bond.
Barthelemy was booked into the jail just after 12:41 p.m. Sunday after he spent a week undergoing treatment at an Evansville hospital. According to Evansville Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Anna Gray, Barthelemy sustained gunshot wounds and incurred injuries from "less lethal" weapons.
The incident that led to Barthelemy's injuries and his arrest began around 12:22 a.m. on Nov. 18, Gray said. City police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers were dispatched to Evansville Regional Airport after employees dialed 911 to report that a man was armed with a knife and threatening staff in the airport's lobby.
Police body camera footage released by the EPD shows the man, later identified as Barthelemy, sitting in a chair directly in front of a Christmas tree display as the responding sheriff's deputies, troopers and officers surrounded him with their weapons drawn.
For around 15 minutes, a sheriff's deputy trained in crisis intervention led attempts to negotiate with Barthelemy and coax him into dropping the knife.
When the deputy asked Barthelemy to identify himself, Barthelemy appeared to walk directly toward the surrounding law enforcement officers before he threw an identification card down on the ground, the footage shows. The officers took several steps backward as they ordered Barthelemy to move away from them and drop the knife.
Throughout the negotiations, the police are heard repeatedly instructing Barthelemy to discard the knife, to no avail.
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The negotiations broke down when Barthelemy began to shout a series of profanities at the police. For a second time, he is then seen in the police body camera footage standing up from the airport lobby chair. The surrounding officers, deputies and troopers opened fire just as Barthelemy turned toward their direction, the footage shows.
Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson said the ISP would lead the internal investigation into sheriff's deputies' and troopers' actions during the incident. The EPD officers who discharged their weapons were placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
According to Gray, Barthelemy traveled to Evansville on a Greyhound bus bound from Indianapolis on Nov. 8. From the outset of Barthelemy's stay in Evansville, he began to have interactions with local law enforcement.
"The driver of the (Greyhound) bus called 911 to report that he had stolen her bag," Gray told reporters during a news conference last week. "When officers arrived at the bus station, Barthelemy was still on scene, and he was in possession of this stolen bag."
Barthelemy was arrested, charged with misdemeanor theft and ultimately released from the Vanderburgh County jail after he posted a $50 bond, court records show. He would have another run-in with the police just one day later, on Nov. 9, after employees at a local shelter for women and children called 911 to report that Barthelemy was "aggressively knocking on the door" and refusing to leave, Gray said.
The incident did not result in an arrest, though officers informed Barthelemy he was barred from the shelter's property.
Nine days later, the police said Barthelemy threatened Evansville Regional Airport staff with a knife after they informed him he lacked the proper identification to purchase a plane ticket. He was reportedly attempting to procure a ticket to fly to his home country of Haiti.
But just where Barthelemy calls home in the United States remains unknown, at least to the public: Barthelemy's Facebook account listed "Indianapolis, IN" as his place of residence, though jail booking records listed St. Louis, Missouri, as the city in which Barthelemy had a registered address.
Last week, Gray said she could not confirm if the ID card Barthelemy threw toward officers at the airport showed he was a citizen of Haiti.
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Evansville Regional Airport's board held its regularly scheduled meeting Monday evening, during which Nate Hahn, the board's treasurer, said he was proud of airport for security for following protocol and promptly contacting law enforcement when Barthelemy began to threaten staff.
Beyond this brief acknowledgment, the board did not discuss the issue.
According to public records, Barthelemy was scheduled to appear in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Tuesday afternoon for his initial hearing. If Barthelemy were to post bond, a condition of his release stipulates that he must stay off of Evansville Regional Airport property.
Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Man shot by police at Evansville airport appears in court
