The Seymour Police Department is warning residents to use extreme caution if using an ATM after dark. That’s after a victim was robbed by a man with a gun early Tuesday morning at a Centra Credit Union ATM.

Police say the attack happened at about 3:55 Tuesday morning at the ATM on South Jackson Park Drive. An unknown man was hiding in an nearby back yard and when the victim withdrew $200 from the ATM, the suspect hit the victim in the face with the gun and took the money. He then ran from the scene and was last seen on video in the 600 block of Miller Avenue.

Police say the suspect has a light complexion, thin build, and was wearing a winter toboggan and striped grey shirt. He is about 6 feet tall and has a tattoo on the bottom of his left wrist.

You can view photos of the suspect on our website. If you have an information on this incident you can call the Seymour Police Department at 812-522-1234 or call the anonymous tip line at 812-523-7629.

The Bartholomew County COVID-19 task force says that the organization will be tracking and updating the various indicators being used to determine whether county schools should be in session, but the ultimate decision is up to the school districts.

The Community Educators Association and the Flat Rock-Hawcreek Teacher’s Association said on Sunday that they were hoping for more transparency in how those numbers are being tracked, and when an increase in the spread of COVID-19 in the community would lead to school closings.

The task force took over the tracking of those numbers recently, and announced that it would be working closely with the school administrators to analyze the data. However the task force, made up of city and county officials, along with school officials, Columbus Regional Health and the county health department, said that it does not have the authority to open or close schools. Instead that responsiblity lies with the schools themselves. The task force said that the schools would be issuing their processes for making those decisions on the district website.

According to the indicators presented Monday, the county continues to see signs of substantial spread based on the per capita positive rate of 21 positive tests per 100 thousand population. That is more than double the level that indicates substantial spread in the community. That indicator has been in the red for eight consecutive days. It would have to drop to below 10 to show moderate spread or below 5 to show no spread.

The number of COVID hospitalizations has been trending in the red for the past nine days, but dipped back into the moderate spread indicator on Sunday with only 13 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the county.

Bartholomew County COVID-19 Task Force statement here

Bartholomew County is moving forward with plans to equip deputies with body cameras and cameras for their patrol cars.

The County Commissioners opened two bids yesterday for the suite of equipment. The bids for the entire 5-year project ranged from about $692,000 from WatchGuard Video of Allen, Texas to $738,000 dollars from Axon Enterprises Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona.

The department is seeking to purchase 57 camera packages for county deputies.
The sheriff’s department had estimated the total cost of the project, using Axon cameras, would be $738 thousand dollars with $280 thousand dollars in up front first year costs.

The bids were taken under advisement with the sheriff’s department and county IT planning to take a close look at the bids and see if they meet the department’s needs.

A statewide silver alert has been issued for a missing Greensburg girl.

The Decatur County Sheriff’s Department says they are investigating the disappearance of 15-year-old Shaelie Lynn Stephens. She is white, 5 feet 6 inches tall and 115 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen Monday morning at about 1:01 a.m. wearing a red hoodie and ripped jeans. Authorities say she may be in the company of two white males in their late teens or early 20s and possibly in a late model white Chevrolet Cavalier.

She is believed to be in extreme danger and may be in need of medical attention.

If you have any information on Shaelie Lynn Stephens, you should contact the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department at 812-222-4911.

Five people were arrested last week in an investigation into drugs at a Columbus hotel.

The Columbus Police SWAT team, along with members of the Bartholomew County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team and the city’s Intelligence Led Policing Unit, served a search warrant at the Residence Inn Hotel, in the 4500 block of West Jonathan Moore Pike at about 10:15 p.m. Thursday night as part of the ongoing narcotics investigation.

Police say that narcotics and drug paraphernalia were found in the room.

26-year-old Christopher E. Davis, 27-year-old Cody J. Staley, both of Columbus, and 18-year-old Jade E. Fine of Bedford are facing preliminary charges for possessing, methamphetamine, narcotics, legend drug injection devices and drug paraphernalia.

26-year-old Donald L. Kapetanios and 19-year-old Courtney L. Graham, both of Columbus, are facing charges of possession of drug paraphernalia.

All five are also facing charges of either visiting or maintaining a common nuisance.

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts says that the schools will not be making public announcements for each individual outbreak of COVID-19 in the school staff and students.

That decision is being made as a way to protect the privacy of those students and staff members.

Roberts explained that as cases come up, the schools will then identify those who have had close contact with the infected person and require those people to also quarantine for two weeks before returning to school. Close contact would be anyone who spent more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of the infected person, Roberts said. That would include classrooms, cafeterias, school buses and other contacts.

BCSC has not included the actual number of cases in the school system as one of the indicators it is using to determine whether schools should remain open or not and it does not appear on the community dashboard as a decision making tool. But internally, those numbers will be tracked and if a significant outbreak occurred, the district is prepared to close an entire class, wing, team or school, as needed to stop the spread, Roberts said.

Roberts said that the district is not opposed to providing COVID-19 numbers as an aggregate that would shield the identities of students and staff. But as long as the person who is ill is easily discernible, the district does not plan to release that information.

He added that the state and county are tracking infections by age, so the raw numbers are available to the community.

The teachers unions for Bartholomew Consolidated and Flat Rock-Hawcreek schools are asking for more transparency into the decision process for possibly closing schools due to the pandemic, the spread of COVID-19 in the school systems and how well the schools are executing their plans to keep students and staff safe during the pandemic.

The two unions released a joint statement Sunday urging the Bartholomew County schools to define when, exactly, the schools would be closed based on the statistics the schools are tracking, to alert the community when a staff member or student tests positive and to regularly update the community on how well schools are complying with their district’s reopening plan.

The teachers unions are urging people to sign a virtual petition.

The petition is directed toward the Bartholomew County COVID-19 Community Task Force. On Friday, BCSC announced that it was going to turn over the tracking and updating of the pandemic indicators to the community task force, instead of tracking and posting updates through the school district.

 You can find the petition here. 

An Indianapolis man was killed in a crash on Interstate 74 near Greensburg on Saturday when his semi crashed into the rear of a stopped semi’s trailer.

Troopers say that traffic was slowed because of two earlier accidents at about 11:25 a.m., when a truck driven by 37-year-old Kevin J. Porter of Indianapolis failed to stop for the slowed traffic and struck the rear of a truck driven by 41-year-old Jason M. Cranfill of Seymour.

Porter was taken to Decatur Memorial Hospital in Greensburg where he was pronounced dead. Cranfill suffered minor injuries in the crash.