A Gary man is in custody and has been charged with the shooting death of a Merrillville man earlier this week.
Justin Summers, 19, has also been charged with aggravated battery of a second Merrillville man, Christian Muniz, Gary Police Public Information Officer Lt. Dawn Westerfield released Friday evening. Gary Police filed additional charges of battery and criminal recklessness as well.
Summers allegedly shot Ray Lewis, 24, Monday evening in the 4600 block of Harrison Street, but police were notified of the shooting when Muniz was taken to Methodist Hospital’s Northlake campus for his injuries. Officers went to the area of 4600 Harrison Street and found Lewis.
Lewis’ death and the shooting death of Darnell Jones, 30, of Gary bring the city’s death count to 38, compared with 22 at the same time last year.
About 9:20 p.m. Monday, a 19-year-old man walked into the Methodist Hospitals Northlake campus with a gunshot wound. He told security personnel that a second victim was still at the scene of the shooting in the 4600 block of Harrison Street, directly west of the shuttered Lew Wallace High School in Glen Park, police said. The teen victim was later flown to an undisclosed hospital in Illinois, Westerfield said.
Police found on Harrison Street a white van with bullet holes parked and the passenger door opened. Lewis was found nearby, on the ground between two houses on the east side of the street, a handgun at his side.
He was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:17 p.m., according to the Lake County coroner.