Police said that a paroled ex-convict was accused of shooting dead an Indiana rookie police officer in a traffic stop. He had made music about killing officers.
Carl Boards II, 42 years old, was charged Monday with murder and unlawful possession of firearms by a serious violent felon. He also faces two counts of resisting police enforcement. This was just a day after Noah Shahnavaz, an Elwood officer, was killed in Madison County northeast Indianapolis.
Shahnavaz, a 24-year-old first-year officer, was shot in the head after stopping Boards’ 2012 Buick LaCrosse at around 2 a.m. on Sunday. Investigators found 36 rifle bullet casings and damage to the patrol car’s hood, windshield and driver’s door.
Shahnavaz’ gun was still in its holster when he was airlifted to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, where he was pronounced dead, police said in a court filing cited by Indianapolis Star.
Boards was captured shortly after he led police on a chase. Officers discovered in his possession a 9mm pistol. A search of his vehicle revealed an AK-47-style rifle along with a high capacity magazine.
Boards owns a Marion barbershop. Police visited the business and interviewed a male resident of an apartment upstairs.
The man indicated that Boards “made a recorded song making statements that if he was ever caught by police that he would kill them,” said Richard Clay, of the Indiana State Police.
Inside the barbershop, investigators allegedly discovered literature that “appeared to be consistent with the Black Hebrew Israelite philosophy.”
The Anti-Defamation League states that some Black Hebrew Israelites sects are anti-Semitic, and even racist. Their adherents believe “that white people are agents of Satan, Jews are liars and false worshipers of God, and blacks are the true ‘chosen people’ and are racially superior to other ethnicities,” according to the organization.
Clay stated that Boards has a lengthy criminal record that dates back from 1999 and includes more than a dozen convictions for drug and gun crimes.
In 2007, he was convicted for criminal recklessness, resisting the law enforcement, possession a firearm by an extremely violent felon, and carrying out a handgun without a permit after firing shots at Indianapolis police officers during a traffic stop.
Boards was sentenced in that case to 25 years imprisonment, but he was released by the Indiana Department of Corrections in 2019. Boards was released on parole less than one year ago.
Officer Mike Kavanaugh, who was involved in the 2006 police shooting that landed Boards in prison for 13 years, weighed in on Shahnavaz’s killing on Facebook and appeared to condemn Boards’ early release.
“Officers SHAHNAVAZ should still be alive,” he wrote. “Boards should still be in prison. I’m not going to say much more about this.”
Shahnavaz served five years in the US Army, before he joined Elwood’s police force eleven months ago. His parents and siblings are his survivors.
“His dream was to serve others and we are proud of what he accomplished in such a short time, both in the military and with Elwood police,” Fishers High School Principal Jason Urban said. “The entire FHS Tiger family grieves this tragic loss of such a promising young man full of talent and potential.”
With Post Wires
Read the full article here
