Authorities say that facial recognition software helped nab a man implicated in a fatal Gary gas station shooting on Saturday.
Police allege Robert Lee Chandler, Jr., 28, opened fire, killing a woman and wounding another man who was there.
He is charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated battery, two counts of Level 5 felony unlawful carrying of a handgun and two misdemeanors. He is also facing a gun enhancement that would add more years in prison, if convicted.
A Michigan City Police SWAT team arrested him Monday “without incident” with help from detectives with the Lake County Prosecutor’s Task Force, according to a Gary Police Department Facebook post.
He is ordered held without bail.
Gary Police responded at 2 a.m. June 29 to the Citgo gas station, 4901 Melton Road, in the city’s Miller section.
They found several .40-caliber bullet casings.
Miracle Roberts, 25, of Gary, was shot in the back. She was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospitals Northlake. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Witnesses and security footage showed a man, identified as Chandler, following Roberts’ boyfriend out of the station. He pulls out a gun and opens fire as the boyfriend runs.
Roberts is in the driver’s seat. The gunman “circles” the car, firing into the windshield. She tries to take off north on Clay Street, before she “went limp,” the affidavit states.
Another man — off camera, who was also shot — screamed he was unarmed and “didn’t see anything,” records show.
The suspect was a “heavy set” Black man in a red hoodie and black scarf. Facial recognition software matched the man on the gas station footage to Chandler’s booking photo in a police database, records state.
Chandler was identified by witnesses in a photo lineup.
Anyone with further information can call Lake County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force Det. Darryl Gordon or Det. James Nielsen at 219-755-3855.
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