A La Porte County Sheriff’s deputy who was shot at a northwest Indiana hospital was credited for saving a nurse’s life moments before he was critically wounded.
Deputy Jon Samuelson was shot inside the emergency room at Franciscan Health Michigan City on Friday morning after transporting an individual he encountered near Westville, believing he was a stranded motorist. The individual, identified as 22-year-old Sharod Grafton of Chicago, allegedly shot Samuelson before fleeing the scene and being apprehended in a wooded area nearby.
According to court documents, just prior to the shooting, a nurse told police he entered the triage area and saw the suspect pointing a gun at him, so he side-stepped into a hallway to avoid being shot. The nurse told investigators Samuelson intervened and rolled the suspect’s hand that was holding the pistol away from him. The suspect then opened fire.
The nurse said Grafton had his gun depressed against Samuelson’s neck and shot him “point blank,” saying the deputy saved his life. Surveillance video reflected the nurse’s account of events.
Samuelson was shot three times during the incident. He sustained a gunshot wound to the left shoulder and a graze wound to the right calf. A third bullet entered the deputy’s head through his left ear, exited through his neck and then reentered his neck and lodged itself inside his T1 vertebrate, court documents stated.
Investigators said surveillance video showed that moments after shots were fired, Samuelson was observed lying face down on the floor, and the suspect pointed the pistol at his “motionless body” – but there was no visible recoil from the gun.
The suspect fled the emergency room after the shooting and tried to enter Samuelson’s patrol vehicle but was not successful, because the driver’s door was locked.
Grafton jumped inside the bed of a white, Honda Ridgeline truck for approximately 30 seconds. A Glock handgun and set of keys were later found inside the bed of the vehicle, authorities said.
Roughly 10 minutes following the shooting, the suspect was located in a wooded area adjacent to the hospital and taken into custody.
Upon inspecting the recovered weapon, troopers saw a caliber casing eject from the Glock’s ejection port, which indicated that the casing had not ejected properly the last time the gun was fired.
Authorities said the incident began earlier that morning when Samuelson encountered Grafton in a silver Chrysler 300 near Westville. An investigation later revealed Grafton allegedly stole the vehicle from his mother at gunpoint earlier that morning in Chicago, court documents showed.
