Police: Gary shootings Monday night believed to be related

Two shootings Monday night in northwest Indiana are believed to be related, according to Gary police.

At 6:44 p.m., officers responded to a shooting in the 6700 block of West 15th Avenue and found two men shot in a gray Chevrolet Malibu, police said. The driver, a 25-year-old Lowell man, was shot once in the chest and a passenger, a 28-year-old Gilman man, was shot once in the arm.

The driver was unable to provide a statement to police because of his wounds, but the passenger told investigators that the 28-year-old man had picked him up in Merrillville and they drove to Gary to drink at a bar, police said. They stopped at a gas station at 15th Avenue and Clark Road, and three males approached them and blocked the car from leaving.

One of the males pulled a gun on them and demanded their money, police said. The older man, armed with his own gun, pulled out his weapon and “everyone started shooting,” police said.

The victims drove west on 15th Avenue and stopped when they felt safe and called 911. Both victims were initially taken to Methodist Hospital Northlake in Gary, but the older man was transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood because of the severity of his wounds.

About 15 minutes later, officers received a call of another gunshot victim in the 5300 block of West 19th Avenue, police said. A female told officers that her boyfriend, a 19-year-old Hammond man, had been shot once in the chest. He was in the backseat of her vehicle.

The 19-year-old told police that he was shot by two males about 6:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Concord Apartments at 19th Avenue and Hanley Street in Gary. He told officers that he was meeting the males to buy marijuana, and as he approached the vehicles, the driver shot him.

The two shootings are believed to be related, police said. Anyone with information is asked to call Sgt. Jon Basaldua of the Gary Police Department’s Violent Crimes Unit at (219) 881-1210, or the crime tip line at (866) 274-6347.