A teenager arrested earlier this week and charged with the attempted murder of a sheriff’s deputy will face charges as an adult.
David Swails, 17, of Mooresville, Indiana led Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies and Bloomington Police Department officers on a foot chase Monday night after he was stopped on a motorized scooter.
According to court documents, he later admitted to attempting to shoot at least one deputy with a stolen gun during the chase.
He also faces five other felony charges, including firearms charges, intimidation and unlawful use of body armor, and misdemeanors for carrying a gun without a license and operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office announced via a press release Wednesday that Swails will be charged as an adult. Because he’s younger than 18, his name had not been previously released.
Swails, driving an orange 2016 TaoTao scooter, was stopped Monday night on the 200 block of West Country Club Drive, near the B-Line trail, by a deputy who noticed the scooter had no functioning lights or registration plate, according to court documents.
When the deputy noticed the scooter had been hot-wired, he told Swails and a juvenile passenger they were being detained. Swails fled and was followed by deputies and officers.
During the chase, one deputy saw Swails brandish a handgun and ordered him to stop, but he kept running. He was eventually found hiding in tall grass, with body armor under his shirt and ammunition in his pocket.
He told deputies he had planned to shoot them and had cocked the gun, but dropped it.
He told them where to find it, and officers recovered a semi-automatic handgun, its serial number scratched off, with a magazine inside and a live round in the chamber.
While a deputy took Swails to his patrol car, Swails said that the gun was stolen and that he was high on marijuana and had been using prescription pills the day before.
He was taken to IU Health Bloomington Hospital for a blood draw. There, he admitted to pulling the gun on a deputy and pulling the trigger but said the gun didn’t go off.
Swails is in the Monroe County Jail with a surety bond of $1,000,000.
