A 12-year-old East Chicago boy is recovering from a non-life-threatening gunshot wound he endured Friday evening – one of four people shot on July Fourth, according to East Chicago police.
Officers were sent to Community Hospital in Munster after responding around 9 p.m. to the boy’s shooting, which happened in the 5000 block of Baring Avenue, according to a release the department issued July 5 on its social media page. The boy’s family said they were lighting off fireworks when he complained of bleeding and pain in his shoulder, it said.
They took the boy to Community, where medical staff told them he’d suffered a gunshot wound, the release said. No witnesses heard any gunshots, so police believe he may have been hit by an errant bullet someone shot into the sky, the release said.
Thirteen-year-old Noah Inman of Hammond was struck and killed July 1, 2016, by a stray bullet fired on the Fourth of July as he played basketball with friends. Six months later in 2017, then-State Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, proposed legislation to the General Assembly seeking to make firing a loaded gun into the air within municipal limits but without legal justification a Level 6 felony. It never received a hearing.
In a second shooting around the same time, East Chicago Police were sent to the 400 block of Vernon Street, where witnesses told them an “unknown individual” fired a weapon into a large party in the alley behind a residence, the release said. Three people were taken to St. Catherine Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release.
When officers went to the hospital to gather suspect information, a large crowd amassed at the hospital from the party “refused to give officers any information,” the release said.
The shootings took place about a mile from each other, according to Google Maps.
Anyone with information about either shooting is asked to contact Detective Miguel Pena at 219-391-8318 or mpena@eastchicago.org. Anonymous tipsters can also contact the department’s tipline by calling 219-391-8500.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
