Officers Kijurna & Davis Assault Citizen
Lt Daniel Kijurna of the Merrillville Police Department
Just before 7pm on October 21st, 2019 two gentlemen walked into the post office in Merrillville Indiana to mail some legal filings. The first postal worker gave the one man some issues however the second postal worker mailed the letter mostly without issue. Since the post office closed at 7pm they closed just after taking care of that customer. The whole interaction can be seen at the video below.
After that one of the individuals went to one of the tables in front of the post office boxes to sort and prep for mailing other documents. No one was creating a disturbance yet postal workers decided to call the police and report that an individual was trespassing on public property. To set the record straight to trespass on public property a person must be committing a crime that would amount to disruption of the normal course of business. That is because every American has a fundamental contractual interest in their government.
When Lt. Daniel Kijurna arrived on scene he spoke with the cameraman and the individual conducting business at the post office in order to figure out who called. He eventually found a postal worker and she stated that the other individual had caused a problem at the counter and was verbally harassing them. She made no mention of the cameraman as he had not even spoken to them.
Lt. Kijurna came over to the cameraman and since the other person had left to get some supplies and come back he chooses to take his frustrations out on the cameraman telling him he had to leave. The cameraman made it clear that it was public property and he was doing nothing wrong. Despite not wanting to leave he was leaving anyway when Lt. Kijurna stopped him and demanded his ID. Demanding ID in Indiana can only be done under the statute when a person is suspected of an infraction or ordinance violation. Trespassing is neither of those. Under duress, the cameraman gave his ID to prevent unlawful arrest and deescalate the situation.
After being sent outside the cameraman demanded his ID back so he could leave. Officer Davis stated that he was being detained and he could not leave.
Awhile later Lt. Kijurna came out of the post office and stated that the cameraman was trespassed by the postal workers and could not return. When the cameraman asked the postal worker who had came outside what he had done Lt. Kijurna demanded that he “shut up”. The cameraman then told the Lt. he did not have to. It was at that point where Lt. Kijurna shown his true colors and why he had demanded ID in the first place. Lt. Kijurna was okay with the cameraman leaving until he knew he was being recorded and then he demanded ID. After being told “I don’t have to.” Lt. Kijurna grabbed the man’s camera ending his live youtube stream.
There were several times during that interaction in which Lt. Kijurna could have left well enough alone. It was his ego and the bad training he received that got the better of him and instead of allowing the cameraman to simply leave he escalated the situation. Even after the youtube stream ended the cameraman reported that while Lt. Kijurna grabbed the camera Officer Davis grabbed his arm and refused to let go. In the video, you can see where the camera came back on briefly before buffering that the cameraman explains that Lt. Kijurna grabbed his camera. During that short clip, you can see Officer Davis turn back around to charge at the cameraman again. The cameraman reported that Officer Davis came over to the cameraman’s vehicle and continued to threaten him and get in his face there also so he could not leave safely.
The conduct of both Lt. Kijurna and Officer Davis was unbecoming of the standards of the Merrillville Police Department as stated in their SOP. The cameraman has stated that he will be filing a complaint with the department and seeking the department to address these officers and their conduct.
