Northwest Indiana Discussion

Cops: Man, 90, shoots 72-year-old woman dead in Gary
Prosecutor will decide whether to file charges

GARY | A 90-year-old man shot a 72-year-old woman to death Monday afternoon after an argument, Gary police said Monday.

The man and woman lived together in the 1600 block of West 9th Avenue near Grant Street. The man shot the woman to death about 1 p.m. Monday at the home, said Gary police Sgt. Tom Decanter. She died with gunshot wounds to the chest and hand, said a spokesman for the Lake County coroner's office.

Decanter planned Monday afternoon to forward information to the office of Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter for a decision on any charges the man might face.
The Times chose not to identify the victim or shooter until a decision on charges is made.

Decanter could not say what kind of gun was used in the shooting.

Collapsing, unoccupied and fire-gutted houses sit next to a few groomed and occupied homes on 9th near Grant. A woman who answered the door at the house next to the one-story white home of the victim and shooter said she did not know the occupants. A large black dog barked at passersby from the home that was the shooting's scene.

Earl People, a neighbor, spent Monday afternoon sitting in his station wagon in a vacant lot. He said he had seen the man and woman at the house, but did not know them. He was near the scene Monday afternoon, he said.

"I knew it was something big because the detectives were down there, too," he said.

BY DAN HINKEL
dhinkel@nwitimes.com
219.933.4183