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1of6FILE – This undated photo provided by the Indianapolis Police Department shows Elliahs Dorsey, the man charged with fatally shooting an Indianapolis police officer when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020. Dorsey will be allowed to seek insanity as a defense as he tries to avoid the death penalty, according to a ruling Friday, June 2, 2023. (Indianapolis Police Department via AP, File)APShow MoreShow Less2of6FILE – This June 14, 2018, photo provided by the Indianapolis Police Department shows Indianapolis Police Officer Breann Leath. A man charged with fatally shooting Leath when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020 will be allowed to seek insanity as a defense as he tries to avoid the death penalty, according to a ruling Friday, June 2, 2023. (Indianapolis Police Department via AP, File)APShow MoreShow Less3of64of6FILE – The body of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officer Breann Leath is escorted from the Marion County coroner’s office to Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis on April 10, 2020. A man charged with fatally shooting Leath when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020 will be allowed to seek insanity as a defense as he tries to avoid the death penalty, according to a ruling Friday, June 2, 2023. (Jenna Watson/The Indianapolis Star via AP, File)Jenna Watson/APShow MoreShow Less5of6FILE – This undated photo provided by the Indianapolis Police Department shows Elliahs Dorsey, the man charged with fatally shooting an Indianapolis police officer when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020. Dorsey will be allowed to seek insanity as a defense as he tries to avoid the death penalty, according to a ruling Friday, June 2, 2023. (Indianapolis Police Department via AP, File)APShow MoreShow Less6of6
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man charged with fatally shooting an Indianapolis police officer when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020 will be allowed to seek insanity as a defense as he tries to avoid the death penalty.
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A Marion Superior Court judge made the ruling Friday and will assign two psychiatrists to evaluate Elliahs Dorsey’s mental health.
Attorneys for Dorsey filed a motion with the court in May saying a report prepared by a doctor states Dorsey was suffering from a mental illness when he shot Indianapolis Officer Breann Leath to death.
Leath and three other officers were responding to a domestic violence call involving Dorsey when she was shot twice in the head through the door of an Indianapolis apartment, police said.
Dorsey faces one count each of murder and criminal confinement, and four counts of attempted murder, one of which stems from his alleged shooting of a woman he had confined inside the apartment.
A judge has ruled that prosecutors can seek the death penalty.
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His trial had been set to start in September but is now scheduled to begin Feb. 12, 2024.
