Volunteer firefighter killed in Southern Indiana double homicide

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Indiana State Police are conducting an investigation into an officer-involving shooting that occurred in Harrison County and resulted in the deaths of two people, one of whom was a volunteer fireman.

An officer from the Palmyra Police Department was called out about 9:30 p.m. on Monday to help what seemed to be a car that had been stuck in the 12000 block of State Road 135, which is located south of Palmyra, according to ISP Sgt. Carey Huls.

According to Huls, two other men who were driving a pickup truck also pulled over to help the person in the disabled car. Huls said shots were fired only a few seconds after they stepped out of their vehicles.

Justin Moore, 31, of Owensboro, the driver of the disabled car, died from gunshot wounds. Jacob Tyler McClanahan, 24, from Corydon, was one of the Good Samaritans who was shot and killed.

The Palmyra officer was taken to Harrison County Hospital for treatment of minor injuries. The passenger in McClanahan’s car was not hurt.

Joshua Saulman, McClanahan’s friend, said that since 2015, McClanahan had been serving as a volunteer fireman in Harrison County.

“When people say only the good die young, that very much applies to this situation,” Saulman said.

Saulman said he had known McClanahan since high school and worked with him at the fire department. He wasn’t surprised to learn that his friend stopped to help on Monday night.

“We saw somebody off to the side of the road one time and they needed gas, and he went home, got a gas can, and went and got gas and gave the lady, who had to children in her car, gas,” Saulman remembered.

Indiana State Police have not revealed many details about the shooting and have not yet specified how many guns were involved or who shot whom. Huls said autopsies will be able to reveal many of those details.

“I understand the public’s interest in wanting answers and exactly what happened, but we want to give a definitive answer and a correct answer from the get-go instead of speculating and saying, ‘we think this is what happened,” Huls said. “That’s why we wait for the results from the autopsy and those types of tests to give us a definitive answer of, ‘this is what we know happened.”

Autopsies are scheduled for Wednesday.

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