Police arrest Georgia man, identify victim of fatal shooting inside Clifty Falls State Park in Madison

MADISON, Ind. (WDRB ) -- A 33-year-old Georgia man was arrested and charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a man Wednesday inside Clifty Falls State Park in Madison.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources said in a news release Thursday that John Dean McElwaney, of Tallapoosa, Georgia, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail and charged with felony voluntary manslaughter.

Jefferson County sheriff's deputies, Indiana conservation officers and Madison Police officers responded around 3 p.m. Wednesday on the report of a shooting in the park. Near the parking lot of the north gate, they found 47-year-old Joseph Renee Lane, of Carrollton, Georgia, with a gunshot wound to the chest.

DNR officials said Thursday they "successfully apprehended (McElwaney) upon their arrival." Their relationship remains unknown.

"This was an isolated event," Josh Thomas with DNR said Thursday. "There was there was no threat to the to the public at that point, especially with our fast response time."

Jimmy Sullivan, who visited Clifty Falls on Thursday and is a Jefferson County native, couldn't believe what he saw in one of his favorite places.

"We were going to Austin to go to church and there was a bunch of police over here," he said Thursday. "... It's not like it used to be. People used to love one another, like they should."

Thomas said police reopened the park's north gate late Wednesday night.

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