An Indianapolis police officer who was shot twice in the face during a weekend traffic stop was declared brain-dead Wednesday as prosecutors and police worked to build their case against the career criminal suspected in the slaying.
Officer David Moore, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department patrol officer since 2004, was shot four times — twice in the face — during a traffic stop on Sunday morning. He had been in a coma at Wishard Memorial Hospital since then, but doctors who performed an MRI on Tuesday said he would not recover from the injuries.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Rodgers said the 29-year-old officer was declared brain dead about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday when tests detected no blood flow to the officer's damaged brain. He said Moore's body would remain on life support until the organ donation process was complete — a process he said could take up to one day.
"Somebody's gonna get a darn good heart," Moore's mother, Indianapolis police Sgt. Jo Moore, said during an emotional news conference at the hospital.
The suspect in the shooting, Thomas Hardy, remained jailed without bond Wednesday on robbery charges. Jail officials did not know whether he had an attorney.
Prosecutors have until Friday to charge Hardy in the shooting.
Hardy, 60, had been released on bond last month following an arrest on theft charges after his parole officer failed to enter his most recent parole information into a national database, Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison said. The parole officer also didn't perform required monthly checks to determine whether Hardy had been arrested, Garrison said.
The agency suspended the parole officer without pay Tuesday. He has not been identified.
The corrections department said Hardy had a criminal history dating from at least 1984, when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a burglary conviction.
He was released on parole in 1990, but has been in and out of prison since then on various charges, including seven sentences for theft, one for cocaine possession and one for misdemeanor battery.
Officials have said Hardy was considered "low risk" when he was paroled in October 2009 after serving a 1,000-day sentence for theft. He was due to report to his parole officer again next month.
Moore's father, retired Indianapolis police Lt. Spencer Moore, said Wednesday he had met with prosecutors, but he declined to discuss Hardy.
"I'm not going to give this guy a second of energy. I could care less about him," he said.
"This is about David and this is about this department that we love."
