The Town of Chesterton posted the following statement on their Facebook page Thursday regarding a press release from the Chesterton Town Council calling for the resignation of E911 Director Gunn:
In a press statement released late Thursday, June 26—establishing a minute-by-minute, even second-by-second timeline of the officer-involved shooting outside the Hilton Garden Inn—the Chesterton Town Council is calling for E-911 Director Debra Gunn’s resignation.
The statement:
“The citizens of Chesterton, Duneland, and Porter County deserve to hear the facts from the people who really know what they are talking about regarding the officer-involved shooting on June 18, 2025. The Town of Chesterton is releasing this statement today to quell any false panic that Director Gunn and Commissioner Biggs may have caused within the Duneland community. There is no threat or risk to public safety because the Towns of Chesterton and Porter still maintain a professionally staffed police dispatch center. There was no delay in response times because of the one additional call between Chesterton and County Dispatch to signal the scene was safe for EMS to enter. The response of police, fire, EMS, and Chesterton-Porter PD dispatch to this critical safety incident were all first-class.
“The response of the E-911 Director falls well short of what Porter County and its citizens deserve. E-911 Director Gunn has created a false panic with her allegations and false facts to at least two local media outlets (Post-Tribune on Sunday, June 22, and NWI Times on Wednesday, June 25).
“The Town of Chesterton has been made aware of a second attempt by County Commissioner Jim Biggs and E-911 Director Debra Gunn to seemingly ‘double down’ on their original remarks late last week to the Post-Tribune, this time to the NWI times.
“As such, they are seemingly attempting to create undue panic among the citizens of Duneland with their baseless claims. The Town of Chesterton and Police Chief Tim Richardson have unfortunately been forced to spend an inordinate amount of dysfunctional time to provide the below evidence-based response to refute Director Gunn’s baseless allegations, once and for all.
“Sadly, this dysfunctional process has deprived the Chesterton Police Department of valuable healing opportunities, since the first baseless claims made to the Post-Tribune. We would note that this evidence-based response pertains only to police and ambulance dispatch and arrival times presented to local media outlets by Director Gunn. These are not facts related to the ongoing investigation into this officer-involved shooting.
“Response exhibits will include a time-stamped phone call directly from the Chesterton Police Department’s Frontier telephone account and numerous images from Flock license plate reader (LPR) cameras located in the Town of Chesterton.
EVIDENCE-BASED TIMELINE
“Officer Nolan Mancera announces “Shots fired, I’m hit” at 8:03:50.
“The on-duty Chesterton Police dispatcher, while balancing a barrage of incoming emergency radio traffic, makes a call to Porter County Central Communications (PCCC) to request an ambulance. This occurs at 8:04:48. The Chesterton dispatcher stays on the line 46 seconds according to the call log. However, PCCC never answers the call from CPD to request the ambulance. This fact directly refutes Director Gunn’s baseless claims that five minutes passed before CPD dispatch requested an ambulance (Post-Tribune Sunday article).
“Almost simultaneously, this same Chesterton dispatcher observes on her monitor that a PCCC dispatcher had created a call for an ambulance response. PCCC created this call at 8:04:46. Observing this, the Chesterton dispatcher marks this task off of her list, recognizing that EMS is now responding.
FLOCK IMAGE 1
“Our in-depth analysis determines that after the EMS dispatch by PCCC, two (2) ambulances depart the ambulance base at East Porter Ave./ Ind. 49 simultaneously, according to medics. There is a Flock LPR at this intersection, just yards from the EMS base, which records one of the rigs at 8:08:17 southbound on Ind. 49 at East Porter Ave. The second rig is blocked by a semi so that image isn’t recorded. SEE FLOCK IMAGE 1.
FLOCK IMAGES 2A/2B
“Images of the first two backup officers responding to the officer-shot call are captured on the same LPR camera at East Porter Ave./Ind. 49. One is Sgt. Jamie Copollo, an on-duty CPD supervisor racing to the scene to assist. The second officer is a Porter Police supervisor racing to the scene to assist. The CPD supervisor passes the East Porter Ave. LPR at 8:05:46 and the PPD supervisor passes at 8:06:41. SEE FLOCK IMAGES 2A/2B.
FLOCK IMAGE 3
“These images indicate that both ambulances were only approximately 2.5 minutes behind the CPD squad and only 1.5 minutes behind the PPD squad upon passing the East Porter Ave. LPR. Reasonable to say the least. “There is also a license plate reader (LPR) on Gateway Blvd., just east of Ind. 49. This LPR is just yards from the injured CPD officer and provided the following evidence-based facts. Sgt. Copollo arrives on Gateway Blvd. at 8:07:30. SEE FLOCK IMAGE 3.
FLOCK IMAGES 4/5
“Sgt. Copollo quickly assesses the scene, which is currently a hot zone, for any continued or additional safety threats. This takes about 43 seconds. Sgt. Copollo is a trained EMT. During this time period, two (2) additional PPD officers arrive on scene, who are trained in police medical care, and begin treating Officer Mancera’s gunshot wounds. Observing no continuing or obvious new safety threats, Sgt. Copollo, at 8:08:13, radios to CPD dispatch that fire and EMS can enter the zone (declaring a warm zone). Staged fire personnel immediately enter the warm zone and assist in rendering aid to Officer Mancera.
“Subsequently, the LPR on Gateway Blvd. records the first ALS ambulance, an inHealth ambulance, to arrive on scene from the Porter Ave. ambulance base, at 8:09:03. See FLOCK IMAGE 4. The second ambulance, Northwest Health is recorded arriving on Gateway at 8:10:22. SEE FLOCK IMAGE 5.
“These Flock images establish that the first ambulance on scene arrives approximately 50 seconds after Sgt. Copollo declared the scene a warm zone. This in-depth analysis has determined that neither ambulance was staged, or made the scene, prior to the all-clear radio traffic (warm zone) by Sgt. Copollo.
“This evidence unequivocally disproves another baseless claim made by Director Gunn, namely, that CPD dispatch caused valuable minutes lost in ambulance response time to the shooting scene. In fact, she attempted to claim five (5) valuable minutes lost by the CPD dispatcher’s not requesting an ambulance for those five (5) minutes, according to the Sunday Post-Tribune article.
“Based on the evidence presented, PCCC’s failure to answer the CPD dispatcher’s call to request an ambulance would have created the only REAL potential delay in ambulance response. Thankfully, this failure was overcome by a heads-up PCCC dispatcher to immediately send an ambulance. Chesterton applauds that dispatcher.
FLOCK IMAGE 6
“Continuing, two Chesterton police detectives arrived to the scene to assist in this critical incident. They arrived at approximately 8:07:33. SEE FLOCK IMAGE 6. They responded to the scene from 15th Street and Broadway, upon hearing Officer Mancera’s report of shots fired over the police radio. The detectives responded in full emergency mode. This further establishes that the first ambulance arrived on scene approximately two (2) minutes after the detectives, who responded from Broadway and 15th Street, again establishing a more than reasonable response time from medics.
“Officers from area departments have told CPD staff that PCCC never advised many of them that there was an active shooter/officer down over their respective radio channels for which the Regional E-911 Center dispatches. Valuable law enforcement response time was lost by PCCC’s not broadcasting this information. In-depth analysis has revealed that a Valparaiso officer was near the Chesterton /Valparaiso line and was never advised by PCCC of the active shooter/officer down. These issues should be handled through after-action meetings and incident debriefs, not by running to the press within an hour or so of an active shooting, as Mr. Biggs did. He did this during a time of overwhelming fear, as the injured officer’s condition was unknown to first-responders still working the scene. His conduct was disrespectful to every brave first-responder who was actively working this critical incident into the early afternoon hours.
“Police Chief Richardson and the Town of Chesterton believe that this evidence-based response, based on articulated facts and evidence, unequivocally refutes all of Commissioner Biggs and Director Gunn’s baseless accusations. A great deal of effort was spent to provide this response to our Duneland citizens. The safety and security of our community as well as of our first-responders remain our top priority, as we have stated from the onset of this critical incident. We are grateful for all dispatchers who work in Porter County and we recognize just how tough their jobs can be at times. Our level of respect for them is unmatched. We apologize for the conduct that you have been forced to witness, brought on by two individuals with unknown motives.
“The Town of Chesterton and Chief Richardson apologize to the Duneland community that Commissioner Biggs and Director Gunn chose to give misleading and untruthful information to the press and put it into public light in hopes of creating a false panic among our citizens. We are hopeful that the evidence presented in this rebuttal shows just how misleading their one-sided facts were. Neither Commissioner Biggs nor Director Gunn reached out to Chief Richardson to brief him on any potential response concerns. Chief Richardson, in short order, could have allayed their concerns as non-starters and non-factual.
“In an effort to move on from this, the Town of Chesterton will draft correspondence to the Porter County Council, the County Commissioners and to the Indiana Public Access Counselor to request an investigation into the potential disclosure of privileged information by Director Gunn, that being specific evidence in the officer-involved shooting case, which may be in violation of Indiana Code 5-24-3-6.5 (Maintenance of Confidentiality by Other Agencies).
“Presented with this overwhelming amount of factual evidence, and given that this is not Director Gunn’s first attempt to create false public panic among our Duneland residents and Town Council members, as it pertains to the joint Chesterton/Porter dispatch center, Chief Richardson and the entire Chesterton Town Council are calling for Director Gunn’s immediate resignation from her position.”