Leesburg Gravel Pit

By FIRST SGT. CHAD HILL
Public Information Office, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department

Kosciusko County officers have arrested four individuals Tuesday, including two that were located inside a police officer’s personal vehicle.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Deputies, while attempting to stop a vehicle at approximately 12:58 a.m. Tuesday morning, initiated a pursuit northbound into the town of Leesburg on SR 15. The pursuit continued into the downtown area of Leesburg until the vehicle stopped in the 300 block of East Van Buren Street with all occupants fleeing the scene. Various officers converged into the town, along with a Warsaw K-9 unit, but the suspects were unable to be located.

Brady Lee Shepherd

Shortly before 10 a.m., sheriff’s deputies received an anonymous tip regarding one of the occupants, Brady Lee Shepherd, 24, Leesburg, who was taken into custody. Shepherd is currently being held on a failure to appear warrant. KCSD deputies stated that Shepherd had purportedly slept overnight in the gravel-pit south of town after he had exited the pursuit vehicle.

Officers were then notified at 11 a.m. that a Warsaw police officer had discovered two individuals sleeping in his personal pickup truck, parked next to his police vehicle at his residence. Bruce Kitson Tillman, Jr., 24, Mentone, and Santana Ann Collingsworth, 20, Warsaw, were taken into custody by city, county and state troopers without incident on the east side of Leesburg.

Bruce Kitson Tillman

Tillman and Collingsworth were arrested and preliminarily charged with resisting/fleeing law enforcement, as well as unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle. They are both currently being held on individual $10,000 bonds at the Kosciusko County Jail.

Santana Ann Collingsworth

Information obtained during the apprehensions then led deputies and undercover officers to a location south of Warsaw involving a drug investigation. K.C.S.D. deputies, along with Warsaw Police Narcotic Unit & Kosciusko County Drug Task Force officers arrested Jordan Joseph Schultz, 25, 1634 S. SR 15, Warsaw, at his residence on multiple charges.

Officials from the Department of Child Services were sent to the scene after officers located two children inside the dwelling which contained marijuana and manufactured methamphetamine. Schultz was arrested and preliminarily charged with felony neglect of dependents, possession of methamphetamine, manufacturing methamphetamine, along with an outstanding probation violation warrant.

Jordon Joseph Schultz

Further investigatory information determined that Schultz had committed a domestic battery in the presences of minors on the previous night involving a female victim. He was additional charged with that offense, along with felony strangulation, and currently is being held on a $4,000 bond.