2 charged in fatal shooting of high school student Alayna Ortiz
GRIFFITH, Ind. (WLS) -- Two men have been charged in the shooting death of a high school student in Griffith, Indiana, police announced Thursday.
Giovante Galloway, 21, and his uncle, 48-year-old Juarez Rogers, face multiple charges including murder and attempted armed robbery in the death of 18-year-old Alayna Ortiz.
Ortiz was shot and killed last Wednesday.
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A police officer working as a part-time security officer at the Park West Apartments in Griffith heard what sounded like a car crash in the parking lot just after 9 p.m., police said. When the officer got there, he saw a red SUV leave the scene fast and turn into a shopping plaza across the street where other police officers were working.
Ortiz, who was in the passenger's seat, had been shot in the head. She later died at a hospital. Her 18-year-old boyfriend, William Hawkins, was driving the car and was the intended target, police said.
Two other people in the SUV told police that Hawkins was a drug dealer. Galloway reportedly owed Hawkins $1,600 for marijuana, which he was unable to pay.
"According to Galloway, his intent was to rob Hawkins of his marijuana in order to raise the money back to Hawkins," said detective commander Kevin Martin, of the Griffith Police Department.
Galloway recruited his uncle, who was last known to live in Park Forest, Illinois, to break into Hawkin's home in Gary, Indiana. Hawkins fired shots through the wall of his home as Galloway and Rogers attempted to break in, police said. Hawkins, Ortiz and two others left Hawkins' home and fled in the red SUV to the safety of a relative's home in Griffith, Indiana. Galloway and Rogers followed the car to the 1800 block of North Arbogast Street, where the fatal shots were fired. Of the four people in the car, Ortiz was the only one hit, police said.
A statement from Ortiz's family read, "All I can say at this time is the Griffith Police Department and surrounding task forces have been working hard, day and night, to bring justice to our family."
