GARY — A dead-end street, the 1300 block of Dakota Street usually is quiet, residents said.
But on Tuesday night, gunfire broke out twice in that Aetna neighborhood, killing one Gary man and injuring three others.
It was the fourth homicide in Gary in less than a week.
As of Wednesday, no one had been charged for any of them.
Jamell Sanders, 19, of Gary died Tuesday night of a gunshot wound to the chest, the Lake County coroner’s office said.
He was pronounced dead at 11:13 p.m. at The Methodist Hospitals here.
“I never had any problems with him,” his mother, Gloria Sanders, said as friends gathered at her home to mourn her son. “He never had any problems with the law.”
She said he was in the process of moving to the house outside her neighborhood where the shooting happened.
Police said Sanders and two other young men — Dominic Romer, 21, and Keone Harvey, 17 — were sitting in a car in front of 1320 Dakota St. about 10:45 p.m. when someone fired numerous bullets into the car.
Investigators don’t know yet why shooting erupted, Detective Sgt. Delmar Stout said.
Sanders’ relatives said Romer drove the car to Sanders’ home in Miller and then to the hospital after the shooting, although he had been wounded in the neck.
A few hours before that, another man was shot on Dakota Street.
Garland Henderson, 21, told police that about 8:30 p.m. someone hit him with a fist in the 1300 block of Dakota and then fired a gunshot, grazing him in the head.
Henderson was treated at Methodist and released, police said.
Stout said police don’t know yet if the earlier incident was related to the second shooting.
Sanders’ mother said her son had a job at a fast-food restaurant, loved performing rap music — he planned to install a studio at the Dakota Street house — and was taking adult education classes to complete his high school degree.
He left Merrillville High School in February 2000.
But she had a bad feeling about his moving from her home in Miller to the house in Aetna.
“I didn’t want him to move over there,” she said. “There were some guys that didn’t like him, for no reason.”
He never joined a gang and had never been in jail.
Her older son, Juan Malone, 24, said he, Jamell and the two others had spent the evening outside the house in Miller. About 10:15, he said, the three others decided to get some hamburgers.
They came back soon afterward, the car shot up and all three men bleeding. Malone jumped in with them as they drove to the hospital.
Two homicides early Saturday on West 5th Avenue appeared to stem from one incident, but police didn’t see a connection between that and a Gary man shot to death Saturday afternoon or Tuesday night’s shooting.
Stout asked that anybody with information about Tuesday’s shootings to call him at 881-4736 or Detective Cpl. Michael Jackson at 881-4753.
Dude was a cool cat, I went to night school with him at Merrillville. Pray for his fam. Hopefully this 4th of July weekend end peacefully.
one
But on Tuesday night, gunfire broke out twice in that Aetna neighborhood, killing one Gary man and injuring three others.
It was the fourth homicide in Gary in less than a week.
As of Wednesday, no one had been charged for any of them.
Jamell Sanders, 19, of Gary died Tuesday night of a gunshot wound to the chest, the Lake County coroner’s office said.
He was pronounced dead at 11:13 p.m. at The Methodist Hospitals here.
“I never had any problems with him,” his mother, Gloria Sanders, said as friends gathered at her home to mourn her son. “He never had any problems with the law.”
She said he was in the process of moving to the house outside her neighborhood where the shooting happened.
Police said Sanders and two other young men — Dominic Romer, 21, and Keone Harvey, 17 — were sitting in a car in front of 1320 Dakota St. about 10:45 p.m. when someone fired numerous bullets into the car.
Investigators don’t know yet why shooting erupted, Detective Sgt. Delmar Stout said.
Sanders’ relatives said Romer drove the car to Sanders’ home in Miller and then to the hospital after the shooting, although he had been wounded in the neck.
A few hours before that, another man was shot on Dakota Street.
Garland Henderson, 21, told police that about 8:30 p.m. someone hit him with a fist in the 1300 block of Dakota and then fired a gunshot, grazing him in the head.
Henderson was treated at Methodist and released, police said.
Stout said police don’t know yet if the earlier incident was related to the second shooting.
Sanders’ mother said her son had a job at a fast-food restaurant, loved performing rap music — he planned to install a studio at the Dakota Street house — and was taking adult education classes to complete his high school degree.
He left Merrillville High School in February 2000.
But she had a bad feeling about his moving from her home in Miller to the house in Aetna.
“I didn’t want him to move over there,” she said. “There were some guys that didn’t like him, for no reason.”
He never joined a gang and had never been in jail.
Her older son, Juan Malone, 24, said he, Jamell and the two others had spent the evening outside the house in Miller. About 10:15, he said, the three others decided to get some hamburgers.
They came back soon afterward, the car shot up and all three men bleeding. Malone jumped in with them as they drove to the hospital.
Two homicides early Saturday on West 5th Avenue appeared to stem from one incident, but police didn’t see a connection between that and a Gary man shot to death Saturday afternoon or Tuesday night’s shooting.
Stout asked that anybody with information about Tuesday’s shootings to call him at 881-4736 or Detective Cpl. Michael Jackson at 881-4753.
Dude was a cool cat, I went to night school with him at Merrillville. Pray for his fam. Hopefully this 4th of July weekend end peacefully.
one
