OFF-DUTY GARY FIREFIGHTER CRASHES INTO STATE TROOPER
An off-duty Gary firefighter could face potential charges after he allegedly hit a state trooper’s police car, according to an Indiana State Police news release.
The Post-Tribune is not naming the man, since he has not yet been formally charged, according to public court filings.
The incident happened around midnight Monday morning on I-65 near westbound I-80/94.
A dark SUV hit Trooper Garcia’s parked vehicle, which was blocking off a construction zone, then took off. The Gary Fire Department transported the trooper to Methodist Hospitals Northlake for “non-life threatening injuries,” the release stated.
Police soon found the SUV driving on the Borman Expressway with “significant front-end damage,” the release states. The driver led officers on a chase through a construction zone and workers “had to move out of the way to avoid being struck,” according to the release.
Before the car stopped near the Gary Fire Department on 25th Avenue and Jefferson Street, the man “nearly (caused) an additional crash,” the release stated.
The driver refused field sobriety tests and police got a warrant for a blood draw at Methodist Hospitals Southlake in Merrillville.
GARY MAN COULD GET 17.5 YEARS IN MURDER PLEA
A Gary man faces up to 17.5 years in prison in a murder plea deal.
Lamont Wilkerson, Jr., 23, admitted Friday to voluntary manslaughter under sudden heat, a Level 2 felony in the July 13, 2025 death of Edward Kindred, 23, of Gary.
If a judge accepts the plea, his sentencing hearing is scheduled Oct. 30.
Indiana State Police Detective Roger Escutia of the Lake County Prosecutors’ Homicide Task Force responded to Waverly Drive and Taft Street in Gary.
Kindred died from a gunshot wound to his legs, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office. Police found 15 bullet shells at the scene.
Video showed Kindred leaving Taft Foods when a silver car pulled up, a man in all white got out, followed Kindred briefly, then opened fire before fleeing.
A second man also got out, but police weren’t sure if he fired a gun.
Moments later, as Kindred was “limping away” and holding a weapon, he appeared to draw as he was attacked.
Police appeared to identify the suspect as Wilkerson after he was seen on video pumping gas a day earlier — matching his picture to a police database. The car appears to be the same one later seen fleeing the murder. He was wearing the same clothes.
The car was registered to Wilkerson’s relative. Investigators found it torched July 17, 2025 on the 1100 block of Wright Street.
NEW JERSEY MAN ACCUSED OF AX ATTACK ON BORMAN
A New Jersey man is facing charges after two separate semi-drivers alleged he brake checked them, forcing them to stop, before getting out and swinging an ax at their vehicles.
Ivan Savych, 29, of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, was charged Saturday with resisting law enforcement, a Level 6 felony, two misdemeanor counts of criminal vandalism and a traffic citation.
Indiana State Police responded around 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 near the Calumet Avenue overpass on Interstate 80/94, where female semi-driver told police a 2011 black Volkswagen stopped in front of her, forcing her to brake to a stop, then a barefoot, angry man got out with an ax and attacked the semi’s grill, puncturing the radiator and smashing a driver’s side headlight, records state. About 15 minutes later, a second semi driver reported a similar encounter near Cline Avenue, charges state.
Savych allegedly led police on a high speed highway chase in the Volkswagen, before Lake County Sheriff’s deputies boxed him in, and arrested him.
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