A driver with a suspended license ran a red light in Linton then when he saw red and blue lights flashing behind him, allegedly threw a loaded Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun out the window, endangering a woman who was standing outside when the gun landed on her sidewalk.

Andrew Edward Frazier, 32, Owensburg, was arrested on Thursday, October 8, on a warrant that was issued as a result of an investigation by Officer John Agan of the Linton Police Department into an incident that occurred in early September.

When Frazier was booked in at 8:16 p.m., his bond was set at $15,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. He has since posted $1,500 bond and been released. He is currently scheduled to be in Greene Superior Court on October 26 for an initial hearing.

Frazier is facing preliminary charges of:

A felon carrying a handgun with a prior conviction within 15 years, a Level 5 felony,
Criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon, a Level 6 felony, and
Driving while suspended – a knowing violation with a prior conviction within 10 years, a Class A misdemeanor.

These charges stem from an incident that started out as a traffic stop.

LPD Officer Agan was on patrol around 5 p.m. on Monday, September 7, driving west on State Road 54 in Linton, traveling behind a gold 2005 Chevy Trailblazer that didn’t stop for a red light at 4th Street NE. The officer initiated a traffic stop.

Andrew Frazier was the driver who admitted his driver’s license was suspended and he knew he should not be driving. While speaking with Frazier, Officer Agan noticed a box of ammunition on the passenger’s front seat but Frazier said there was no firearm in the vehicle.

A records check confirmed Frazier’s license was suspended and also that the license plate on the vehicle belonged to a different vehicle. Frazier said the vehicle belonged to a woman who had just purchased it and the plate belonged to her previous vehicle.

Officer Agan told Frazier he would not be allowed to drive the vehicle because his license was suspended and that the vehicle would be towed. Frazier said he had a ride coming to pick him up at another location and he left on foot.

Prior to the vehicle being towed, when Officer Agan conducted the required inventory, he noted the 50-count box of Winchester FMJ 9 mm ammunition contained three Winchester FMJ 9 mm bullets and two Lugar 9 mm bullets.

But while Officer Agan was waiting on the tow truck, LPD dispatch informed him they’d just gotten a call from a woman who said someone drove past her house and threw a firearm out of their vehicle. She lived in the 300 block of NE A Street in Linton.

When Officer Agan got to that location, the woman said she was outside and heard something hit the sidewalk and she then saw a black handgun, which was later identified as a 9 mm Sig Sauer P938 handgun. The woman said the gun was on the sidewalk next to a driveway that runs between her house and a neighbor’s house. She was afraid to touch it, but the neighbor picked it up and put it on her porch.

When Officer Agan talked to the neighbor, he said he wasn’t outside when the woman discovered the handgun but when he saw it, the gun magazine was out of the handgun, a few feet away from the gun. The gun was inside a black holster. He said he picked up the gun in the holster and the magazine and put them on his neighbor’s porch. He said the magazine contained multiple bullets.

Officer Agan reported when he pulled the slide back on the gun, a Winchester FMJ 9 mm bullet ejected from the chamber and the magazine contained seven Winchester FMJ 9 mm bullets. He noted this was the same brand and caliber as the ammunition that was inside the Chevy Trailblazer during the traffic stop.

In a probable cause affidavit prepared by Officer Agan, he states that the woman was outside her residence where the loaded handgun landed, and had the handgun discharged on impact, she would have been in danger of being struck by the round on discharge. Also, Agan said, a highly trafficked ice cream shop was located approximately one-half block to the southeast of the point of impact of the handgun and any patrons would have been in danger of being struck by an errant round had the handgun discharged on impact. Agan continued, that the danger of the handgun discharging on impact was present because there was a round in the chamber and ready to fire. He clarified that neither the woman nor the neighbor chambered a round in the handgun after it was discovered on the sidewalk.

The next thing that occurred in this investigation is that Officer Agan reviewed the video taken by the dash camera system in his patrol vehicle. He reported the video showed the Chevy Trailblazer traveling through the red light, then the red and blue lights were activated on the patrol vehicle, then as the Chevy Trailblazer traveled past the woman’s residence, the video showed a black object appearing to be thrown from the vehicle. The object bounced on the sidewalk on the north side of the street several times then stopped. Officer Agan said the video did not show any other vehicles on that side of the street at that time and there were no pedestrians present. The item landed in the area where the woman said she discovered the gun.

Frazier was asked to come into the Linton Police Department for an interview. He didn’t show up for the first appointment but did show up for a second appointment time, on September 19.

During the interview, Frazier admitted he traveled through a red light, that his license was suspended and that he shouldn’t have been driving but he denied possessing or discarding the Sig Sauer handgun and said he didn’t have a permit to carry a handgun. Frazier then said he thought he needed a lawyer and the interview ended.

The Sig Sauer was sent to the Indiana State Police laboratory for fingerprint and DNA analysis – results pending.

Officer Agan said Frazier was convicted of possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony, in 2019 in Greene County and was convicted of driving while suspended, also in 2019 in Greene County.

A criminal case was filed against Frazier on October 6 and the warrant for his arrest was issued on October 7.