Robbers in home invasion wound man

Slate Belt police say a 66year-old Plainfield Township man was shot Wednesday night during a home invasion robbery that remains under investigation.

Police did not identify the victim, but said his injuries don’t appear life threatening. The man was shot twice in the leg and is being treated at St. Luke’s University HospitalFountain Hill, authorities say. According to police:

At 7:20 p.m., police were called to a home in the 1700 block of Delabole Road for a report of a shooting.

Two men came to the victim’s home and were let inside by a female friend of the victim, police say. Both men demanded money, and during the robbery shot the man.

Police say the armed men fled after stealing a safe from inside the home.

Authorities say one suspect is a white man wearing a tan shirt and tan pants. The second man is black, in his early 20s, with dreadlocks and was wearing a red shirt and red baseball cap with the brim turned up.

— Pamela Lehman

County Jail in Indiana and is awaiting extradition back to Monroe County, where he faces charges of involuntary servitude, human trafficking and promoting prostitution, detectives said.

Monroe County detectives filed the charges following an undercover operation at the Days Inn Hotel on July 17, but Higgins fled before police could arrest him.

During the investigation, which was part of the Monroe County district attorney’s ongoing efforts to combat sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, police interviewed a victim and she told them that she “was working under the direction and control” of Higgins, detectives said.

Detectives are continuing to look for other victims.

Higgins has a history of similar crimes, including the trafficking of minors, in California, detectives said.

— Manuel Gamiz Jr.