‘Panic and terror’ as shots are fired at Marshall County home Friday night

 

MARSHALL COUNTY, Ind.— While some partied along Thorn Road in Marshall County near Walkerton Friday night, one family had to take cover as bullets went flying.

“My six-year-old, who has autism, he’s currently asking, just about every time we talked with him, why the neighbors want to kill him,” said Noah Jacobs, whose home was shot up by stray bullets from neighbors. 

Jacobs was home with his four young kids when bullets sprayed the side of his house.

“I heard a round hit my kid’s room. I ran up towards the edge of the house, and I started hollering at them to get on the floor,” he said. “A round hit the glass, and my kids start screaming.”

Two of his children, he said, were hit by shrapnel glass when their bedroom window was struck.

“I wish I could accurately describe… there was panic. There was panic and terror, there was unchecked rage,” Jacobs said. “As a vet, you expect to see that stuff elsewhere. You don’t expect to see your autistic six-year-old to be screaming, covered in blood.”

Jacobs, a military veteran, instinctively grabbed his body armor. He got his children outside and hid with them under his truck, laying on top of them, trying to protect them with his vest.

“It took a while to get acclimated from Afghanistan,” he said. “And it put me right back…”

He lives on 4 B Road in Marshall County, and the shots came from Thorn Road, from a home where Jacobs said there appeared to be a party that night.

Jacobs, a gun owner himself, said he is not opposed to shooting, as long as it is done safely, unlike the incident from Friday night.

“You take a lot of responsibility into your hand when you get behind the wheel of a vehicle,” Jacobs said. “People need to understand it’s the same amount of responsibility when you pick up a firearm.”

According to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department, three men were arrested and charged for criminal recklessness shooting a firearm into an inhabited structure

The police investigation led them to determine the shooters did not have a proper back stop to be shooting semi-automatic rifles. A back stop can be anything—a pile of dirt, concrete, etc.—to stop bullets from going beyond their target.

In Marshall County, where outdoor shooting is allowed, most people have back stops set up for target practice.

“Whatever you’re shooting at, there’s not going to be something beyond that you don’t want to be hurt or shouldn’t be shot at,” said John Pemberton, manager and chief instructor at Kodiak Firing Range & Training Facility in South Bend.

Pemberton said the issue in this case is negligence, and the solution is responsible gun ownership and education, plus a proper back stop. “Some bullets can go for a long distance, essentially,” he said. “So, we want something that’s basically—when it hits—it’s going to stop the bullet from going any further.”