First responders from Johnson, Marion and Bartholomew counties responded to a mass shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall Sunday evening.
Daily Journal File Photo
With shootings happening all over the country it was only a matter of time before it hit home, said Mike Pruitt, Johnson County coroner.
Coroner’s office officials are continuing death investigations into the four who died during Sunday’s shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall.
Preliminary autopsy reports were released Tuesday on the four who died, including the gunman, but the official reports, along with toxicology, will not be complete for another three weeks, Pruitt said.
The office is handling more deaths than usual, but deputy coroners are prepared for this.
After having watched similar incidents play out time and time in the U.S, the coroner’s office was prepared for the eventuality of a mass shooting taking place in Johnson County.
“I expect it every day of the week,” Pruitt said. “We watch what is happening all over the country … We plan and we talk about it all the time.”
In all death investigations, several things remain the same. The office has to investigate one decedent at a time, have a methodical approach, and has to give law enforcement space and assist them when needed, Pruitt said.
For the county’s deputy coroners, one of the hardest parts of the job is notifying families of deceased loved ones that someone they loved is dead. This time that was magnified by the number of victims. In all cases, deputy coroners see family members on one of the worst days of their lives, Pruitt said.
The coroner’s office has a very experienced staff who was prepared to respond to the shooting. Over half of the office’s staff has either worked for the Marion County Coroner’s Office, which routinely deals with multiple deaths at once, or had worked last year’s mass shooting at the FedEx Ground Facility in Plainfield, Pruitt said. Nine people died and seven others were injured in that shooting.
In this case, the office was not able to handle all of the death investigations alone, so they worked with the Marion County Coroner’s Office, he said. Marion County conducted the death investigations for two of the victims, who both died at Indianapolis hospitals.
“This is something we prepare to do,” Pruitt said.
It’s a sad situation to expect these kinds of incidents and to see that society is this way, Pruitt said. However, this is why it is important for people to say something if they see something to prevent something like this from happening, he said.
Daily Journal editor Leeann Doerflein and reporter Noah Crenshaw contributed to this report.
