UPDATE: Man shot and killed by police was drunk, friends say

MARSHALL COUNTY, Ind. – Friends said bar owner, 62-year-old Mark Albright of Plymouth was drinking heavily just before he was shot and killed by police.

“It was devastating, a good friend like that, it’s wrong,” Robert Strafford said Albright was with Albright at his bar, the Argos Bar and Grill Thursday night. Albright was drunk, beyond intoxicated, “By the looks of it yea,” Strafford said, “He was out of his mind, impaired and everything else.”

Stafford said he and his fellow bar patrons tried to stop Albright from driving but the 62-year-old refused to listen, “Just got into his truck and drove away.”

In his red pickup truck, Albright sped off toward his home in Plymouth but just North of Argos on Michigan Road, an officer with the Argos Police Department tried to pull him over on the suspicion of drunk driving.  

But when the officer flipped on the red and blue lights, Albright hit the gas, “That’s the first time he’s done that,” Stafford said. According to police, Albright has been arrest on charges of DUI at least three times; Stafford said he thought the number was higher than that.

This time, Albright did not pull over; the 62-year-old took police on a nearly 15 mile wild ride from Argos to just outside of Walkerton. The red pickup truck sped from Michigan Road to US-31 onto US-6 then South down Quince Road until it slammed to a stop.

“It ended up here in my yard,” Delores Hostetler said she heard tires screech, then the sirens quickly followed. Officers from the Argos and Walkerton Police Departments as well as an officer with the DNR swarmed her yard. “Never had that happen before,” Hostetler said the police told her to stay inside and to lock all the doors and windows.

Albright tried to make a run for it; officers were right behind him Hostetler’s said she watched the 62-year-old cut through her yard, “Then I heard the shots.”

According to police, Albright pulled out a gun and waved it at the officers just before he fired two shots at the police. The officers returned fire and Albright was taken down, the 62-year-old died on the way to the hospital.

“He had a 357 magnum,” Stafford said, “He turned and started shooting and them, yea the cops had the right to shoot him.”

The Indiana State Police is investigating the shooting which should take about two weeks to complete, then all of the evidence will be passed on to the Marshall County prosecutor. As of Friday evening, the names of the officers who fired have not been released.

An officer with the Argos Police Department said he felt sorry for the victim’s family but Albright gave them no choice.