Truck driver fatally shot by officer inside truck cab while threatening woman with knife

Truck driver fatally shot by officer inside truck cab after police receive reports of a woman calling for help from inside. 

The incident occurred on Thursday, November 30th at around 7:20 p.m. in a parking lot near the McDonald’s in the 4900 block of Knights Way, near Interstate 69 and Interstate 465 on the southwest side of Indianapolis, Indiana. 

According to 13 WTHR, officers arrived at the scene and spoke with the person who had called 911. That person pointed officers to the semi truck and told them they had heard a woman yelling for help. Officers then approached the truck and knocked on the cab door. A man came out from behind a curtain separating the sleeper from the seats, sat in the driver’s seat for a moment, and then went back behind the curtain. Officers then heard a woman scream. 

Police then surrounded the cab, instructed anyone inside to come out, and eventually broke a cab window in order to better hear and see what was going on inside. An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant then opened the truck door and spoke to the man, who made statements that he was “going to kill her.”

The lieutenant then entered the cab and saw the woman bleeding with the man on top of her. The officer then fired at the man, killing him. 60-year-old Lamont Bland was pronounced dead inside of the truck cab. 

The woman was treated for multiple lacerations at the scene and was later interviewed by officers. A razor blade with blood on it was discovered inside of the sleeper berth. 

Anyone with information about the shooting is encouraged to call IMPD Det. Sgt. Erika Jones at 317-327-3475, or call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana anonymously at 317-262-TIPS.