Injured Indy cop has Hoosier ties

An Indianapolis police officer and former IU Police Department cop was shot in the face by a suspected drug dealer during Thanksgiving break.\nOfficer Mike Antonelli was shot in the face Nov. 20 during a struggle with a suspected drug dealer, causing the loss of his right eye. Just after 10 p.m. he made a traffic stop for an illegal turn, which resulted in a struggle after the driver got out of the car, according to an Indianapolis Police Department press release. During the struggle, the suspect, 26-year-old Kenya Wright, allegedly fired five shots, one of which struck the two-and-a-half year IPD veteran. U.S. Marshals captured Wright two days later as he was allegedly trying to start a drug operation.\nReports stating Antonelli will return to the force and continue serving Indianapolis don't surprise IUPD Officer Tom Kuhlenschmidt, one of Antonelli's partners at IUPD and a fellow cadet during his time at the academy. \n"If he could have he would have been back the next day, he was just that type of guy," Kuhlenschmidt said. "This was what he wanted to do, and he is good at what he does."\nAntonelli was determined to be a police officer throughout his time at IU and worked his way from IUPD cadet, to a full-time IUPD officer, to his dream job as a police officer in Indianapolis, said IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger. \n"He was a very good officer," Minger said. \nHis former partner agreed.\n"He was the first one of us who would really want to go out and find something," Kuhlenschmidt said. "He was really physically active and had a good head on his shoulders. A lot of being a police officer is having common sense and figuring out what the next step is, and it came naturally to him."\nAntonelli was released from the hospital Monday. Antonelli, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, received a visit from former IU quarterback and current Steeler Antwaan Randle El, in town for the Colts game Monday night.\nHeroic actions aren't anything new for the former IUPD officer, as he was honored by the American Heart Association for saving a man whose heart had stopped at the IU Physical Plant, according to an April 5, 2004 article in the Indiana Daily Student.\nAntonelli administered CPR after finding employee Allen Clouthier unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse after responding to a call Feb. 7, 2003. Fellow officer Chris Dutton and Antonelli then used an Automatic External Defibrillator to shock Clouthier's heart and continued CPR until paramedics arrived, saving the man's life.\n"We went through the academy together," Kuhlenschmidt said. "He was born to be a cop; he was always really focused"