Sandy MaloneGranger, IN – Authorities have released some details about the Indiana State Trooper who was shot with his duty weapon by his 11-year-old son.
Police responded to a home on Conover Drive in Granger at about 11 p.m. on Feb. 21 after receiving a call that Indiana State Trooper Matt Makowski had been shot in the pelvic area, WSBT reported.
Trooper Makowski, an 18-year veteran of the state police, was transported to the hospital where he was immediately taken into surgery.
Investigators said he is steadily recovering from the gunshot wound, KUTV reported.
When police arrived at the home, Trooper Makowski was able to tell St. Joseph’s County Metro homicide investigators that his 11-year-old son was the shooter, FOX News reported.
The son, who is in 5th Grade, was arrested and held in a juvenile detention facility.
Court documents obtained by WSBT revealed that Trooper Makowski’s son told authorities that he shot his father because he was angry that his video games had been taken away.
The 11 year old told detectives that he had been planning to shoot his father since school because “He was done with all of that” and “wanted it to end.”
Trooper Makowski told investigators that his son “must have retrieved his firearm from his parked vehicle outside of the home.”
His son told investigators that was exactly what he had done, WSBT reported.
The boy said he had gone out to his father’s police vehicle three separate times to look for his duty weapon before he found it.
Court documents revealed that the boy carefully considered how to shoot his father, WSBT reported.
“The boy says he went into his parent’s bedroom with the gun and decided to wait ‘about 10 minutes’ until his dad rolled over and was facing away from the door so that ‘he wouldn’t see me shooting him,’” the 11 year old told detectives.
Trooper Makowski’s wife heard her husband screaming after he was shot, and went to see what had happened.
She found the trooper’s duty weapon on the floor and picked it up, WSBT reported.
But then she saw her son headed upstairs, carrying his father’s Taser and a BB gun, so she called 911 and locked the bedroom door while she waited for police to arrive.
When officers arrived at the Makowski home, they took the 5th grader into custody, according to WSBT.
According to court documents, “the boy told officers he wanted a [Playstation], an Xbox and a computer, and if he didn’t get them, there would be a ‘part 2.’”
Trooper Makowski’s son appeared in court on March 5 for an initial hearing, and was scheduled to return before the judge on April 10, WSBT reported.
Neighbors said that the boy’s behavioral problem were well known in the community.
St. Joseph’s police said officers had responded to the same home for a welfare check a week before the incident.
“The behavior out of that child has escalated throughout the years. I personally have had issues with him and my child,” one neighbor told WSBT.
She said that the Department of Children Services (DCS) had gotten involved after a serious fight between the trooper’s son and another child in the neighborhood.
The other child was injured, she told WSBT.
“I’ve seen how he can twist from being happy and playing like a team – a little baseball in the front yard to wanting to kill somebody and hit them and knock them to the ground bloody and bruised,” the neighbor said.
She said DCS wasn’t doing enough about the trooper’s problem child.
“They’ve done all of the paperwork. They’ve done all of the safety plans. They’ve done all of the preaching. They’ve done all of the counseling. They’ve done this. They’ve done that. Nothing is working, so I beg for the prosecutors to actually get involved and get this under control before we are sitting in a bigger funeral,” she told WSBT.
Other neighbors told WNDU that the fifth grader has been violent and manipulative, and has even threatened adults.
The boy is now facing attempted murder charges in juvenile court, KUTV reported.