Police: Son may have fatally shot father in self-defense in Gary

A son may have fatally shot his father in self-defense Thursday evening during an argument inside the family’s home in Gary.

About 6 p.m., officers responded to a call of shots fired and a violent disturbance at the home in the 700 block of Tyler Street in Gary, according to a police report.

When they arrived, the officers met a woman who said her ex-husband was shot by their 32-year-old son, the police report said. She had taken her grandchildren outside to the family car to escape the argument.

The officers entered the home through the open front door and the son came walking downstairs covered in blood, the report said. He told the officers he was trying to help his injured father and officers took him into custody without incident.

The son was not injured and had a gun in a holster on his right hip, police said.

The father, Clifford Flemming, was found upstairs with wounds to his right leg and head, the police report said. A firearm was located under Flemming, which his ex-wife said he may have retrieved from the family car during the argument with their son.

The shooting may have been in self-defense and possibly justified, said Gary Police Sgt. Thomas Decanter.

Flemming, 59, who lived in the family home, was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 5:49 a.m. Friday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy was scheduled for Saturday.

As of Friday evening, the son had been released pending a determination from the Lake County prosecutor’s office, Decanter said.