Published: May 15, 2008 08:10 am            

9:30 p.m. UPDATE: Man said to be involved in chase still in hospital

Grandmother says he should have been behind bars

Officials say 21-year-old Stephen A. Gumm, 21, is still hospitalized after being shot early Thursday morning by a Clarksville Police Department officer.

After the shooting, Gumm allegedly led police on a chase on and then off of Interstate 65 and into Jeffersonville. The result was three wrecked cars, four separate crime scenes and three people taken to area hospitals, including Clarksville Police Officer Shawn McDonald, with non-life-threatening injuries, according to new information from WLKY-TV in Louisville.

Gumm’s grandmother, Carolyn Dean, said her grandson shouldn’t have been out on the streets to cause the incident.

Dean told WLKY that Gumm was convicted of burglary in Harrison County and was set to serve 10 years in jail. Gumm was released on his own recognizance for a lesser charge in Floyd County, WLKY reported.

“I’m holding him responsible,” Dean said. “He’s 21 years old. I told him, ‘turn yourself in.’”

The incident started just past midnight Thursday after two officers responded to a disturbance call shortly after midnight at 511 Harrison Ave.

When McDonald and Sgt. Carl Durbin arrived on the scene, they say they observed “suspicious activity” with a man standing outside of a red 1995 Pontiac Sunfire occupied by two other men parked on the side of the road.

Officers approached the man standing outside of the vehicle and asked the driver of the car to exit the vehicle. As officers were talking to those two men, the man in the car’s passenger seat — later identified as Gumm — crawled over to the driver’s side, started the engine and started to drive away.

Officers said they ordered Gumm to stop the car, but he did not comply and instead started driving the car toward Durbin, who fired a shot at the vehicle. Gumm continued to flee the scene and the officers pursued him onto Interstate 65 southbound.

Gumm rammed McDonald’s cruiser near Exit 0 in Jeffersonville, causing the police car to crash in to the median and roll at least one time on the interstate. Gumm continued driving and collided with a van at the intersection of Market Street and Southern Indiana Avenue.

He continued west on Market Street before being stopped by another Clarksville officer in the parking lot of a strip mall along Southern Indiana Avenue.

The driver of the van, New Jersey resident Joseph Finizio, 71, was taken to Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Gumm was taken to University Hospital.

Indiana State Police — with help from Clarksville police — is continuing the investigation into the incident.

        

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