Key Takeaways
- A man driving a Dodge aggressively followed a Volkswagen, leading to a confrontation in a construction zone.
- The driver of the Volkswagen shot Kevin Powell after repeated warnings, citing self-defense under Indiana law.
- Witnesses described Powell’s hostility and aggressive behavior before the shooting, indicating he posed an imminent threat.
- The prosecutor emphasized that the driver had no duty to retreat when fearing for his life, as established by the law.
- The incident highlights the importance of controlling escalating situations to avoid tragic outcomes.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
HANCOCK COUNTY, IN — A man on his way to work shot and killed a stranger who followed him bumper to bumper across a county line, got out of his vehicle in a construction zone, and kept advancing on him after repeated warnings to stop. The Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office has determined the shooting falls under Indiana’s self-defense law and will not file criminal charges.
The man who died was 37-year-old Kevin Powell of Indianapolis. The shooting happened on the afternoon of July 21, and the account below comes from the findings of the Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office and from Prosecutor Brent Eaton, as reported by Fox59.
Investigators said two vehicles, a Volkswagen Jetta and a Dodge Journey, had been traveling the same route from Marion County into Hancock County. Witnesses said the Dodge began following the Volkswagen at an extremely close distance, less than a foot off the other car’s bumper.
Traffic stopped in a construction zone. Powell got out of the Dodge and, according to the prosecutor’s findings, “aggressively approached the Volkswagen.” One witness said he told the Volkswagen driver, “You shouldn’t be driving on my road that fast, motherf*****.” A witness described his demeanor as “very hostile.”
Powell started back toward his Dodge. Then he turned around and came back. The Volkswagen driver stepped out of his car with a handgun. “I wouldn’t do that. Don’t do that. Get back in your car,” the driver told him, according to the prosecutor. Powell kept coming. The driver fired several shots, striking him more than once. Powell retreated to his vehicle and died of his injuries.
Witnesses later told police Powell had been heard saying, “Oh, you gonna get your gun? You afraid? You gonna get your gun? Well, come on, get out.” That taunt is the part that decides this case. A man who sees the firearm, says out loud that he sees it, and closes the distance anyway has announced what he intends to do.
The prosecutor’s office makes no mention of Powell ever being armed. “At every point the driver of the second vehicle was the aggressor and was intent on escalating the situation,” Eaton said. He said one independent witness told investigators, “If I was put in that predicament, if I was the guy in the Volkswagen, I would have been scared for my life,” and that “objective observers, without any connection to either party, said it was their opinion the driver of the Volkswagen would have been in fear for his life from the manner he was approached.”
Deadly force is justified only against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm, and nothing in that standard requires the attacker to be holding a weapon. That is the same standard armed citizens across the country carry under every day. Hands, size, a closing distance and a stated intent to do harm can all put a person in danger of death or crippling injury, which is why an unarmed aggressor and a lawful shooting are not a contradiction. The prosecutor’s office laid out the sequence it relied on: Powell followed at an extraordinarily close distance, got out and initiated the confrontation, approached an occupied vehicle, threatened bodily harm, challenged the driver to get his gun and come out, briefly turned back toward his own car, then renewed his approach despite repeated verbal warnings.
The other half of that finding is what the driver did not do. He never approached Powell. He stood at his own vehicle and told the man twice to stop and go back. “The law in Indiana is clear,” Eaton said. “If you are in fear for your life, you do not have a duty to retreat and you are able to use deadly force and that’s what happened here.”
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After the shooting, the driver stayed on scene and called 911. That put his account in front of investigators in the first minutes and gave them a cooperative witness rather than a man they had to go find.
The two men were strangers before the encounter, and Eaton was blunt about what that means. “You know it’s tragic, because it’s avoidable,” he said. “The driver of the second vehicle, there was no reason for him to get out of his car.” That is the mindset lesson sitting in plain sight. Everything before the moment of imminent danger is the part you can still control: you can let the gesture go, you can take the exit, you can stay behind locked doors and call it in. Powell chose to get out. The Volkswagen driver, who has not been publicly identified, was left with the fight he did not pick and no way to leave it.
