In the early morning hours of December 11, 1980, a sense of duty led 44-year-old Indianapolis Police Sergeant Jack Ohrberg to a residence on North Oxford Street. A 19-year veteran of the force, the male officer was part of a team attempting to serve arrest warrants connected to a string of violent crimes, including armed robberies and the murder of a Brink's guard. The suspects inside were considered dangerous, having been linked to a gang and a series of brazen offenses.
The air was thick with a tension that would soon erupt into deadly violence, forever altering the lives of all involved.
As Sergeant Ohrberg and his fellow officers approached the front door of the house, they announced their presence, their calls of 'police' piercing the pre-dawn stillness. When their commands were met with silence, they attempted to force the door open. In an instant, the quiet was shattered by the staccato blasts of gunfire from within the residence. Sergeant Ohrberg was struck by multiple rounds from an AR-15 rifle and fell to the porch. The ensuing gunfight was brief but intense. When the shooting subsided, three men, Gregory Duane Resnover, his brother Earl Resnover, and Tommie Joe Smith, emerged from the house and were taken into custody. Sergeant Ohrberg was rushed to a nearby hospital, but his wounds proved fatal.
The investigation that followed painted a grim picture of the men inside the house. They were heavily armed and had barricaded the door with furniture in anticipation of a confrontation. The Resnover brothers and Smith were subsequently charged not only with the murder of Sergeant Ohrberg but also in connection with the earlier murder of the Brink's guard, William Sieg. While all three were convicted for Sieg's murder and received lengthy prison sentences, the case for Sergeant Ohrberg's death took a slightly different path. The murder charges against Earl Resnover were dismissed due to a lack of evidence directly linking him to the shooting.
For Gregory Resnover and Tommie Joe Smith, the wheels of justice turned slowly but inexorably. Both men were found guilty of the murder of Sergeant Jack Ohrberg and, in 1981, were sentenced to death. For years, their cases wound their way through the appeals process. Ultimately, their sentences were carried out. On December 8, 1994, Gregory Resnover was executed by electrocution. Less than two years later, on July 18, 1996, Tommie Joe Smith, who was identified as having fired the fatal shots, was executed by lethal injection, becoming the first person in Indiana to be put to death by that method. The conclusion of their cases brought a final, somber chapter to the tragic story of a dedicated officer who lost his life in the line of duty.
