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A police officer on an undercover operation was the victim of an armed robbery as he worked in Indianapolis on Tuesday, investigators said. The officer was preparing to make a drug sale as part of an undercover sting in the 200 block of Parkview Avenue when he was held up, police said. Three men were apprehended shortly after the incident, and the money that was taken was recovered. Police arrested Guan Davis, 27, Michael Hamiter, 30, and Eric Williams, 23. All face robbery and other charges. Police also found drug money, crack and guns on the men.

A 57-year-old man died in a south Georgia jail the day after he was arrested. Willie Calloway of Americus was found lying on a bed and unresponsive around 4 p.m. Saturday when a detention officer went in his cell to pass out meal trays, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Department. Jail medical personnel found he had no pulse, Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Col. Eric Bryant said. Calloway had been arrested around 11 a.m. Friday by Americus Police on a charge of probation violation, according to the sheriff’s office. Bryant said Calloway was “extremely intoxicated” when booked into the jail. “We interviewed other inmates — there were four in that cell — and they told us the inmate had breakfast, then lunch before going to the rec yard. After that he lay down on the bed,” Bryant said. Authorities have not determined the cause of death. In a news release, the Sheriff’s Department said preliminary findings suggest Calloway died from natural causes. Bryant said the body was sent to the State Crime Lab for autopsy. The county coroner and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are working with sheriff’s investigators on the case.

Shaquille O’Neal was present during a botched child pornography raid last month while working in Virginia as a reserve sheriff’s deputy, a Bedford County Sheriff’s officer said.

The Miami Heat center, who pursues his interest in law enforcement during the offseason, denied Tuesday taking part in serving the search warrant at the wrong house Sept. 23. However, Bedford County Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Harmony confirmed to The Associated Press that O’Neal was there.

O’Neal, in Orlando to play a preseason game Tuesday, was asked about the raid and several times somewhat playfully responded, “It wasn’t me.”

The 13-time All-Star has expressed an interest in becoming a Bedford deputy or sheriff somewhere else after his NBA career ends. He also works as a firearms-certified reserve police officer in Miami Beach.

“Of course, being sheriff is a seasoned political position, so we’re not going to be out there knocking down the wrong doors,” he said. “We just have to do the right thing.”

A.J. Nuckols, who said his family has filed formal complaints, wrote in a letter published in the Chatham Star-Tribune that the raid at his Gretna, Va., home scared him and his family “beyond description.”

He described being “held at gunpoint, taunted and led into the house,” and said the home was ransacked by a “paramilitary search-and-seizure team” that took computers, cameras, DVDs and VHS tapes.

Nuckols said in a phone interview that he heard O’Neal was at his home, but didn’t specifically see the 7-foot-1, 325-pound All-Star in all the commotion.

Authorities later realized they had been given the wrong IP address, which Internet service providers can use to identify users, leading them to the wrong physical address, Harmony said. It was the Internet company’s mistake, he said.

Harmony said the sheriff’s office apologized, but Nuckols mischaracterized the incident. Harmony said officers were wearing bulletproof vests and may have been in dark or camouflaged clothing, but were not carrying assault rifles or wearing helmets.

He said the sheriff’s office conducted a successful search on the correct home Friday, finding child pornography and securing a statement from a man saying he knowingly distributed it.

The Bedford Sheriff’s Office enlisted O’Neal to be the spokesman and public face of its anti-child pornography and child predator campaign, making him a deputy last year.

Harmony said O’Neal had been on previous search warrant executions.

A Florida sheriff was killed on his 47th birthday during an accident at a charity school bus race, the Florida Highway Patrol said Sunday.

Lake County Sheriff Chris Daniels Sr. died about 9 p.m. Saturday at the Battle of the Badges, an annual charity race for Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranches at the New Smyrna Speedway, officials said.

Witnesses said Daniels’ bus spun out of control after colliding with another bus on the 12th lap of the 15-lap race. It is unclear exactly how he died.

The highway patrol was investigating. The Lake County’s sheriff’s office didn’t return calls Sunday.

“It’s devastating and unbelievable,” said Lake County jail operations chief Gary Borders, who saw the crash from the stands.

The event was canceled after the crash, track general manager Terry Roberts said. He said that the drivers all wear seat belts and helmets and that the buses are equipped with devices that limit speeds to 45 to 50 mph.

Daniels, a Republican, was elected in 2004, the first newly elected sheriff in Lake County in 15 years.

The Gallia County coroner revealed on Friday that one of the troopers involved in a fatal crash had alcohol in his system at the time of the autopsy.

Sgt. Dale R. Holcomb, 45, and Trooper Joshua P. Risner, 29, died on Sept. 28 when their vehicle collided with a pickup and caught fire, NBC 4 reported.

Coroner Dr. Dan Whitely said that according to an autopsy conducted two days after the crash, Risner’s blood-alcohol content level was 0.08.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol also released information about the events that led up the crash.

Investigators determined that the patrol cruiser, driven by Risner, was traveling between 60 and 71 mph with its emergency lights and siren activated.

Officials said the driver lost control, spun into the westbound lane and struck a Chevrolet Silverado being driven by 32-year-old Lori Smith. Smith was traveling between 10 and 20 mph and moving to the right of the approach of the cruiser.

According to the patrol, Risner was approaching the end of his shift and had just picked up Holcomb at his home when the crash occurred. There was speculation that the officers may have been en route to assist an off-duty trooper.

Smith, of Vinton, Ohio, also died. According to OSP, a blood test on Smith revealed trace amounts of marijuana in her system.

“I think the law is made for all of us to obey. If we have to obey it, the troopers should, too. They did not, and now my mother is not going to get to see her children grow up, much less her grandchildren. I would like to see justice, but there’s not going to be any justice. They could give me $25 million, and it would never bring back my mom. It was bad enough that they were going a high rate of speed, but this is even worse. I can’t even talk about it,” said Tiffany Dodds, Smith’s daughter.

Holcomb was a 21-year veteran, and Risner was a seven-year veteran of the post who followed in the footsteps of his father, a retired trooper.

OSP officials said they launched a separate investigation to determine when and where Risner could have ingested alcohol.

A police officer in Watauga fired over his MySpace.com Web page won his job back on Tuesday, but has been suspended again. In a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday morning, a mediator determined the city failed to notify Jason Reddick of his rights and ordered the city to give him his job back. Just 30 minutes later, the city suspended him again for the same thing. Video Reddick was first fired last May after the city claimed he not only identified himself online as a Watauga police officer, but also had sexual and racial postings on his personal page on the popular social networking Web site. Reddick and his attorney appealed, arguing he never wrote anything offensive and didn’t know anyone else did, either. The comments on the page were allegedly posted by other users of the Web site. “He said right from the beginning that this information was information that was posted by other people and that ‘I didn’t know about it,’” said attorney Lance Wyatt. For the latest suspension, Wyatt said the city is using the same evidence, but slightly different wording. “It’s unfair. It is inappropriate and they are just using a little different language with the same evidence that they presented in the last hearing,” said Wyatt. Wyatt said the city is now conducting another investigation into the same Web page. The Watauga city attorney did not return calls from NBC 5 asking for comment on the situation.

DURHAM — The discovery of cocaine at a northern Durham bar led to the firing Monday of three Durham sheriff’s deputies, including one already charged with drug trafficking and another considered a gang expert.

Deputy Michael P. Owens, arrested Friday after officials raided his business, La Zona Sports Bar & Billiards on North Roxboro Street, was dismissed along with Deputy William Keith Dodson, and Cpl. Bradley King.

Dodson and King, both deputies since 1999, were fired for violating policies governing off-duty work, Sheriff Worth Hill said.

The two spent time inside La Zona while hired to guard the door. Sheriff’s Office policy states that while working at a bar, deputies must stay outside, Hill said.

Neither had been charged with a crime. “Some people may have violated the law, but we are unable to prove that at this time,” said Capt. Paul Martin of the Sheriff’s Office.

Dodson headed an anti-gang unit and often gave multimedia presentations to the public and police on gang colors and hand signs. His work earned him a national award in 2004 from the National Gang Crime Research Center in Chicago.

Hill said there’s no evidence Dodson’s work as a gang investigator was involved with the crimes he says happened at La Zona.

Reached by phone Monday, Dodson declined to comment. Efforts to contact King and Owens were unsuccessful.

King worked as a patrol deputy. Owens, of 4800 University Drive, Apt. 29-G, worked in civil law enforcement with tax collections. All three are in their early 30s, Martin said.

Hill said he knew each of the deputies well, especially Dodson, whom he coached on a youth football team years ago.

“If I was a betting man, I would have lost some money,” Hill said. “They were outstanding deputies.”

So far, five men, including former Deputy Owens, have been charged in the discovery of 4.5 ounces of cocaine at La Zona during a raid Friday night.

The four others charged with trafficking by possession of the cocaine were: Sergio Garcia Perez, 23; Mario Garcia Segura, 21; and Isidoro Vallinas Domingues, 25, all of 3106 E. Geer St.; and Jose Manuel Ramirez, 21, of 453 California St. in Belhaven.

Owens is the bar’s sole owner, said Maj. Lucy Zastrow. The building’s owner was changing the locks on La Zona’s front doors Monday to evict the business, and the bar’s alcohol permits were being revoked, officials said.

The venue is nestled in a strip of businesses on North Roxboro Street. It has been operating as a bar and pool hall since at least 1989 under names including Touchdown Billiards and Somewhere Else Sports Bar, according to records with the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.

It appears Owens took over the business within the past year. In August, Owens started a company, MOR Enterprises, and days later applied for a temporary permit to serve beer and wine at La Zona, according to state records.

The only complaints that alcohol law enforcement officials have received about the bar were about beer bottles and other litter scattered by patrons, said Derrick McMillan, chief of law enforcement for the Durham County Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.

Monday’s firings culminated at least two months of surveillance and collaboration with federal officers, Zastrow said.

Hill said he’s now considering banning officers from off-duty work in bars. The temptations may be just too great, he said.

Police Superintendent Phil Cline is moving to fire six officers for alleged offenses including steroid use, a hit-and-run, pistol-whipping a man, leaking information in a drug probe and threatening other officers, according to papers released Monday.

The Police Board made the administrative charges public after the Sun-Times filed Freedom of Information requests. The charges were filed in August and earlier this month.

Cline, who has moved to fire about 90 officers since he was appointed superintendent in 2003, is seeking to dismiss:

Ashland, Ky.
A Carter County constable who was assaulted last week, allegedly by a motorist he had pulled over, has died and the man accused of beating him has been charged with murder.

Elmer Kiser, 63, of Olive Hill, died Wednesday morning in the intensive care unit at King’s Daughters Medical Center, where he had been in critical condition.

The charge against Kiser’s alleged assailant, Johnny R. Puckett, 23, of Soldier, has been upgraded to murder as a result of the constable’s death, Kentucky State Police at Ashland said Wednesday.

Puckett was arrested Friday night on a charge of first-degree assault. He remained in custody Wednesday in the Carter County Detention Center. A deputy jailer said he did not know the amount of Puckett’s bond.

Kiser was found lying unconscious on Crawford Avenue, off Ky. 2 just north of the Olive Hill city limits, the evening of Sept. 20. Minutes before he was discovered, the constable had reported that he was following a reckless driver on Ky. 174, the KSP said. He had requested backup from the Olive Hill Police Department.

Carter County 911 dispatchers subsequently received another call from a person who reported a man lying in the roadway on Crawford Avenue. Olive Hill Police Officer Bruce Palmer responded and found Kiser unconscious and injured.