Tell City police assist in safe arrest of warrant suspect

Tell City police helped end a tense warrant arrest in the 1300 block of 12th Street after 26-year-old Joshua Allen Blunk barricaded himself inside a home and prompted an Indiana State Police SWAT response. Officers took Blunk into custody without incident, and police said there was no harm to the public, the suspect or responding officers.

The arrest came Thursday, June 18, and briefly turned a residential stretch of Tell City into an active police scene as local officers and state troopers worked together on the warrant service. For neighbors nearby, the immediate concern was the visible law-enforcement response and the uncertainty that comes with a barricade call in a city block where families and other residents live close together.

Police said Blunk had an outstanding warrant out of Warrick County. At the time of the report, he was being held in the Perry County Detention Center and was expected to be extradited to Warrick County. The listed charges were rape, three counts of sexual misconduct, two counts of child exploitation, sexual battery and three counts of strangulation.

The case also highlights how often local agencies have to coordinate when a warrant is considered high-risk. Tell City police assisted Indiana State Police, and the state agency’s Special Operations Command oversees specialty teams and statewide special-enforcement coordination, including support for operations like the one that unfolded on 12th Street.

The public account of the arrest did not include details about the underlying allegations, the date the Warrick County warrant was issued or whether Blunk had legal representation at the time of the arrest. Tell City Police Department records are handled at 707 Mozart Street in Tell City, where Cher Reed serves as records coordinator.