Sheriff’s deputy attacked by detainee was strangled with handcuffs, court documents say

The sheriff’s deputy who died after he was attacked by a detainee at the Indianapolis Adult Detention Center Monday was strangled with handcuffs, according to court documents.

A probable cause affidavit said video surveillance footage showed Deputy John Durm opening the rear door of a jail van that contained a detainee, identified as 34-year-old Orlando Mitchell. According to the affidavit, Mitchell stepped behind Durm, put his handcuffed hands over Durm’s head and around his neck, and began to choke him.

The affidavit describes a struggle between the two that ended with both men on the ground. Mitchell choked Durm with the chain of his handcuffs until he stopped moving. Mitchell then found the handcuff key on the ground, according to the affidavit. Mitchell unlocked the handcuffs, stole the jail van and crashed it near the Community Justice Campus on the city’s southeast side.

Mitchell was taken into custody and transported to Eskenazi Hospital in stable condition. Durm was also taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. The Marion County Coroner’s Office said Durm’s cause of death was ligature strangulation. The office ruled Durm’s death a homicide.

According to the affidavit, Mitchell was arrested for murder, felony murder, robbery and escape. The Marion County Prosecutor’s office is considering criminal charges against Mitchell.

Durm was 61 years old. He was a 38-year veteran with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. 

Contact WFYI criminal justice reporter Katrina Pross at kpross@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @katrina_pross.

Pross is a Corps Member of Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.