Slain Butler Officer Leaves Wife, Three Children

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Butler University police officer who was fatally shot on campus Friday morning had been with his department for just more than a year and a half.

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Officer James L. Davis, 31, was shot in the head in the parking lot of Hinkle Fieldhouse after being called to investigate a suspicious person, police said.

Davis (pictured, left) left a wife and three children, ages 8, 3 and 1, according to Butler.

Butler said it would make black ribbons available for students, faculty and staff to wear in Davis' memory.

Davis joined the Butler University Police Department on Jan. 14, 2003. Before that, he was a corporate security officer for Conseco Inc.

From January 2001 to August 2002, he worked as a drill instructor for Project Impact, which provides behavior modification for at-risk youth, according to Butler.

Davis also had worked as a youth service officer for the Indiana Department of Corrections, where he supervised 96 juvenile offenders.

He graduated from Indiana University in 1995, where he majored in criminal justice and Afro-American studies, Butler said.

Butler Deputy Police Chief Andrew Ryan told reporters that Davis' death is a "very big loss" for the 16-member department.

"We're going to have to step up to the plate and do what we have to do to get our job done," Ryan said.