2 men killed during invasion

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September 23, 2009

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL The Commercial-News Wed Sep 23, 2009, 10:19 AM CDT

INDIANOLA — A retired village police chief in Vermilion County shot and killed two men after they forced their way into his home and demanded money.

The Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of home invasion just before 11 p.m. Monday in the 300 block of S. Vermilion Street in Indianola.

Vermilion County Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said two men — a 17-year-old and a 22-year-old — were dropped off at the home just outside of Indianola as part of a planned robbery of the home and its residents. The suspects — armed with a shotgun — were under the impression the couple had money in the two-story home.

Hartshorn said the men also carried masks and rope to tie up their victims.

The homeowner, former Westville police chief Max “Mick” Taylor, responded to knocks at the front door of the home.

According to Hartshorn, the two suspects shoved the man inside and began strangling him with their hands, demanding money and asking where his safe was.

Taylor’s wife, hearing the commotion, came down the stairs and told the men the couple had no money, but she would give them her jewelry.

While the men followed Taylor’s wife to their bedroom to go through the jewelry, Taylor retrieved a handgun from inside the bedroom.

Hartshorn said the 17-year-old was shot as be began to level the shotgun at Taylor. The second suspect was pursued as he fled the room and shot in a downstairs bedroom of the home.

One suspect, the 22-year-old man, has been identified as Thomas L. Moore. Court records list his address along Spelter Avenue. The Vermilion County Coroner’s Office has not officially identified either suspect in the case. An assistant at the office said Tuesday that no names were expected to be released until today.

Hartshorn said both men were pronounced dead on the scene.

Taylor was taken to Provena United Samaritans Medical Center where he received treatment for the strangulation he received from the two men. A spokeswoman for the hospital said Tuesday morning that Taylor was treated and released.

Hartshorn said another man, also 17 years old, who dropped off the duo at the Indianola home was located by sheriff’s deputies about two blocks from the house in the truck he was driving. He confirmed to investigators that the home invasion was a planned act based on the belief there was money in the home.

Moore has a criminal record locally, pleading guilty to felony burglary in two criminal cases, misdemeanor possession of a firearm in another and misdemeanor counts of battery in three others, according to Vermilion County court records.

Look at earlier reader comments about the shooting at http://www.commercial-news.com/opinion/local_story_265105620.html?keyword=topstory

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