McCORDSVILLE — Step by step, Officer Jessica Barnes made her way up to the front of the room with ease.
Police Chief Paul Casey waited with a big smile on his face and a Purple Heart award in his hand.
Over much of the past year, that simple walk wasn’t possible for Barnes, who suffered serious injuries after being struck by a car during her response to an emergency call last June.
Nearly 11 months later, she’s fully recovered and back on the force.
Barnes was among the officers who responded to reports of a woman who had threatened to harm herself in the 5000 block of Woodhaven Drive during the afternoon of June 18, 2020. She and her colleagues learned the woman had taken some type of drug and then left the scene in a vehicle. The McCordsville officers, along with the suspect’s relatives and officers from the Lawrence Police Department, began searching for the woman.
They found her in her car at the Oaklandon Youth Organization in Lawrence and tried to get her to leave the vehicle. But during the conversation and without warning, the woman abruptly backed up and turned her car in such a manner that Barnes and the woman’s husband were both struck as the woman fled the scene.
Barnes suffered injuries to her lower right leg after it was run over by the car. She was transported to IU Methodist Hospital. The woman’s husband was treated and released at the scene.
Officers from multiple police departments joined the search for the woman, who was eventually taken into custody without incident and charged with several felonies in Marion County.
Barnes’ injuries included multiple broken bones in her right leg and damage to her left knee as well.
After an extensive recovery, she said it’s good to be back.
“It’s been a long 11 months,” she said.
She underwent three surgeries to repair her ankle and knee. Her ankle required pins to keep it stable.
“I want to thank Dr. Jan Szatkowski for his excellent work in repairing my right ankle and the staff of the A4N surgical trauma floor at IU Methodist Hospital,” Barnes said in an email. “I also want to thank Dr. Patrick Siparsky for his excellent work in repairing my left knee.”
Throughout her recovery, Barnes went from a wheelchair to a walker to a walking boot.
“Then I finally got to walk,” she said. “It was a lot.”
She participated in rehabilitation sessions several times a week.
“I had to learn to walk again,” she said. “You got to get your knee to bend, your ankle to work. It’s just a long, slow process.”
Barnes said she received excellent care throughout her rehab as well.
“My physical therapist Anna Thomas from Pro Team Tactical Performance was awesome and worked with me for many months to get me back on my feet,” she said in her email. “I can’t thank my IPEP (Indiana Public Employers’ Plan) nurse Cheryl enough for always making sure I got the best care throughout this entire process. I am grateful to all these people, and without their excellent care, I would not physically be where I am today.”
Barnes said her past experience with leg injuries also helped her through the ordeal. The former athlete has torn her ACL and had meniscus surgery, which involves the cartilage around the knee.
“It’s not a new game to me,” she said. “I knew how it went.”
Barnes is grateful for the well wishes and phone calls she received from law enforcement officers across the county throughout her healing process as well.
“I specifically want to thank Chief Casey, Major (Jim) Bell, my fellow McCordsville officers and the town of McCordsville for their unwavering support,” she said in her email. “Lastly, I want to thank my family and friends for their unconditional support and willingness to help me in any way they could.”
At a McCordsville Metropolitan Board of Police Commissioners meeting earlier this week, Casey presented Barnes with a Purple Heart from the American Police Hall of Fame.
“I think that for anybody who’s been in sports or received a major injury or had surgery, it’s really hard to understand the problems that you can have just mentally and emotionally trying to get through that part of that injury,” Casey said during the meeting. “I think it’s a testimony to her ability to overcome.”
Casey also noted how Barnes has been easing back into her role.
“I look forward to getting her back full time on the road,” he said, adding she’s been assisting in the office a lot and helping younger officers.
Barnes is an important member of the MPD team, Casey told the Daily Reporter.
“I’m just glad she can make it back physically,” he said. “It was a devastating injury.”
She has more than 10 years of experience with the department.
“I think it’s great to have someone with her experience back,” Casey said. “We’re a young department, so we didn’t need to lose anybody. You need that person who can guide people a little bit. We don’t have a lot of that, so it was great to have her get back so she can provide that calming force.”
Barnes is also the department’s defensive tactics instructor, teaching hands-on classes on handcuffing, gun retention and different kinds of holds.
“That is what she would teach our department, so we’ve also been without that asset,” Casey said.
Her absence wasn’t the only staffing challenge the department has experienced lately. Higher law enforcement salaries in surrounding communities have made it difficult for McCordsville to get and retain officers, Casey said. Not long before Barnes was injured, the department agreed to send one of its officers to Mt. Vernon schools to serve as a resource officer. On top of that, the department had several new hires that didn’t work out.
“To be honest with you, you just kind of make it work,” Casey said of how the department adapted without Barnes for so long.
Now, however, the department is just one officer short, which Casey estimates is the closest it’s been to fully staffed in about a decade.
