On June 20, 1892, Jackson Plummer, a 60-year-old man in ill health, left his home with his handgun and went looking for members of the town board of Kentland, Indiana.

[3] Plummer started walking home, but not before he had pointed the pistol at Elliott and a board member named Conklin, and had threatened the town marshal, if he were to show up.

[4] Chief Justice James McCabe delivered the opinion of the court on October 10, 1893.

McCabe noted that Dorn may or may not have held the authority to make a warrantless arrest of Plummer.

[9] Wilson v. State[10] discusses Plummer, depicting it as saying that it applies to the situation where the arresting officer is using excessive force such that unless the arrestee defends himself or flees, he is likely to suffer great bodily harm or death.

[16] Several other sources note that Bad Elk is no longer good law,[17] what one legal commenter stated was a "bizarre, irrational or merely grossly wrong understanding of law...."[18] Modern sources describe Plummer and Bad Elk as applying when there is an unlawful use of force rather than when there is an unlawful arrest; under contemporary law in the majority of U.S. jurisdictions, a person may not use force to resist an unlawful arrest.