On January 23, 2026, Lafayette police announced the arrest of five suspects in the brazen daytime shooting that wounded Tippecanoe County Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly. The couple, shot at their home days earlier, remain in stable condition — a small mercy after what was clearly an attempt to silence a public servant and terrorize an ordinary American household. The swift arrests are welcome, but they do not erase the danger that was allowed to fester until bullets were fired.
The attack itself was as cold and calculated as any we see on the nightly crime reports: on January 18, someone knocked on the Meyers’ front door claiming to have their dog, then fired through the door when the judge answered. This was not a spontaneous robbery gone wrong; it was a targeted, cowardly act committed in broad daylight against a judge—an attack on the rule of law itself. Communities expect to walk into their homes without fearing death; elected officials and judges deserve the same basic protection.
Police named the five taken into custody as Raylen Ferguson, Thomas Moss, Blake Smith, Amanda Milsap and Zenada Greer, with three facing attempted murder and related violent charges while two were booked on obstruction and related counts. Authorities flagged Moss and Smith as habitual offenders, a designation that should alarm every voter who’s tired of repeat criminals walking free until someone gets hurt. Law enforcement’s multi-agency effort to apprehend these suspects deserves credit, but the presence of repeat offenders in a violent case like this is a damning indictment of soft-on-crime policies.
Judge Meyer has said he won’t let this horrific act shake his confidence in the judicial system, and Lafayette officials say the arrests came after a coordinated probe involving local, state and federal partners. That unity of purpose is exactly what works when law and order still matter, and every American should applaud police, prosecutors and federal agents who came together to bring suspects into custody. At the same time, we must ask why our justice system routinely fails to keep violent repeat offenders off the streets in the first place.
This episode also underscores a broader, alarming trend: public servants and community leaders are increasingly vulnerable, and lax sentencing, plea bargaining and revolving-door incarceration fuel that insecurity. When the media reports habitual offenders in connection with an attack on a judge, it should be a wake-up call for prosecutors, sheriffs and legislators who still believe leniency is a public virtue. If we truly value the rule of law, we must demand tougher penalties for violent repeat criminals and a criminal-justice system that prioritizes public safety over political fashion.
We should celebrate the arrests, pray for the Meyers’ full recovery, and channel outrage into constructive action: insist local leaders secure courthouses and judges’ homes, urge prosecutors to pursue the fullest charges the law allows, and vote out officials who put ideology ahead of citizens’ safety. America’s judges are not targets to be politicized or abandoned; they are essential to the order that lets hardworking families live in peace. Now is the moment for the tough, commonsense leadership that puts public safety first and protects those who protect our liberties.
