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player ready...On a balmy fall afternoon, 13-year-old Kobe Jones was shot to death near his own front door on Gary’s near west side.
Police said theytalked to witnesses all along the block who saw a neighbor, Khanji Fairly, marching up and down the street, railing against the teen he thought had broken in to his house.
“Everybody could tell us what they saw right up to the point where that young man was killed,” Gary police Investigative Cmdr. Del Stout said. “And then no one saw anything.
“If you can’t be upset enough to help police with the murder of a 13-year-old boy, it’s not going to be easy in any of these cases.”
With the reluctant help of witnesses and efforts by detectives, Fairly, 30, did get charged with murder.
But it’s that lack of cooperation by those closest to a case that makes investigating homicides so difficult. And it may be among the reasons why Gary experienced almost twice the number of violent deaths as all the rest of Lake and Porter counties combined last year. Many violent gun offenders are more brazen because they count on witnesses not coming forward to police, authorities say.
In 2014, Gary’s unofficial total number was 53 homicides. Porter County had four; the remainder of Lake County, 24. All of those in Porter County include suspects who have been charged. In East Chicago, three homicides were ruled self-defense and of the remaining seven, four cases have charges. In Hammond, one was ruled justified and five others have suspects charged.
Gary’s solve rate hovers around 55 percent, according to the department, but Stout says cooperation from witnesses could increase the number of closed cases and likely reduce the number of new ones.
For Paul Scott, of Grayslake, Ill.,the tragic loss of his teenage daughter, Ashley, is softened a bit because her alleged killer is in jail charged with murder.
On Dec. 3, Ashley, 17, and some friends drove to the west side of Gary to buy marijuana. Instead, they were led to a remote, dark area and ambushed. Ashley, a passenger in the car, was shot in the neck. The driver raced them across Cline Avenue to a brightly lit McDonald’s parking lot in the Hessville section of Hammond where police found the girl, already dead.
Stout noted that her companions could have easily left her body somewhere, and denied any knowledge of the shooting. But they stuck around, told the truth, and Ronald McMahan, 19, of Gary, is charged with murder, he said.
“I was appreciative of how quickly police tracked him down,” Scott said of McMahan. “Or I would have been out there myself.”
Scott praised investigators for their professionalism, calling Gary police “stellar,” but also recognized that without those witnesses, “We would never have had the closure we have.”
Ashley was the only girl of Scott’s five children. “She was my Sugar Bean,” he said.
Illegal activities by witnesses are a big reason they don’t want to share what they know, Stout said. “Those lifestyle facts are things that help us figure out what happened. If we don’t know that early, we may learn later, and then we have to go back to relatives or witnesses and almost start over.”
East Chicago police Chief Mark Becker — whose focus has been on reaching out to residents by walking neighborhoods, conducting forums and offering a citizens academy — has seen crime reduced significantly in his three years there. Using the same personal approach he employed as the FBI supervisor over the Gang Response Investigative Team for 11 years, Becker said people are slowly developing the confidence to share tips with his officers.
“Give us a chance,” he tells people. “If we don’t act, then you don’t ever have to call us again. But if you see us act on those tips, that news will spread too.”
More than half of East Chicago’s homicides last year resulted in charges, but his detectives face many of the usual hurdles of urban environments where people live close together and often know associates of both the victim and suspect.
“They’re either afraid they are going to get killed, or they want to take matters into their own hands,” Becker said.
In Hammond, where police and residents struggle with a strained relationship after some very public confrontations last year, Lt. Richard Hoyda reported that six of the city’s 11 homicides were solved, including one police-involved shooting the prosecutor ruled as justified. The police department has a Community Affairs division with about six officers assigned to improve communications.
“We are trying to reach out,” Hoyda said. By developing better relationships with residents, Hoyda expects those same people will feel more comfortable sharing information with police. He asks anyone who is withholding important facts to think, “If it happened to you or your family, wouldn’t you want someone to come forward?”
Portage police Chief Troy Williams said both of the city’s homicides were solved. In one, a baby was brutally beaten and an occupant of the mobile home where it occurred was an early suspect and has been charged. And three teens are charged with killing Alexius Tapia, 36, who confronted them as they allegedly broke into his car early Dec. 12, Williams said. “These kids weren’t from Portage and in possession of stolen handguns. It’s a tragic situation,” he said.
As soon as the call came in, Williams said police flooded the area to search for the trio. Using the department’s social media, the department can communicate with residents who in turn can share information they encounter.
“We want to be out there with our message,” Williams said. “We can post a picture asking for an identification, and within minutes we can get responses.”
While Valparaiso’s crime is low compared to other Northwest Indiana cities, police spokesman Sgt. Michael Grennes said the best deterrent is an involved community.
“We need the public’s help, but then you have to have transparency. It builds trust,” Grennes said.
Valparaiso has a successful anonymous tip program that scrambles callers’ phone numbers when they provide a tip.
“We can call them back and give them an update, or ask for more information, but we never know what number we are calling,” Grennes said. “Those tips put us in the right direction.”
2014 Lake County Homicides (outside Gary)
EAST CHICAGO
Garrion Glover, shot, Feb. 10
Jermiah Rivera, 17, shot, Feb. 17
Stephen Davis, 21, shot, May 3.
Larry King Jr., 43, shot, July 20
Antoine Johnson, 22, shot, July 23
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Kemond Coleman, 19, shot, July 26
Gary Walton, 28, shot, Aug. 3
Luis Walker, 28, shot, Aug. 24
Martell Tillotson, 31, shot, Sept. 22
Isaac Thomas, 34, shot, Nov. 8
HAMMOND
John E. Brown II, 44, shot, Feb. 16
David Homola, 45, shot, March 8
Tom Wu, 26, unknown, March 12
Renata Marquez, 37, shot, March 29
Kelvin E. Campbell, 26, shot, May 14
Raudel Contreras, 26, shot, Aug. 17
Lonnie Williams, 44, shot, Sept. 27
Robert Swafford, 29, blunt force trauma, Oct. 15
Afrika Hardy, 18, strangled, Oct. 17
Martin Hurtado, 45, shot Oct. 28
Terrill Fenderson, 37, shot, Dec. 4.
GRIFFITH
Nina Castro, 42, shot April 21
MERRILLVILLE
Magrine Haywood, 80, stabbed
Nickolaus Schultz, 24, shot
2014 Porter County Homicides
BURNS HARBOR
Rodney Owen, 46, blunt force trauma, Sept. 10
PORTAGE
Juanzo Vargas, 20 months, blunt force trauma, Oct. 4
Alexius Tapia, 36, shot, Dec. 12
VALPARAISO
Gerid Forste, 31, shot, April 2
Sources: police departments, Lake and Porter county coroners