Gary shootings: 4 murders in 24 hours not random, officials say
GARY, Ind. (WLS) -- Gary police are investigating four murders in just about 24 hours which they said they believe are not random.
The victims were identified as 50-year-old April King, 27-year-old Arlandus Jackson, 14-year-old Bobby Wright and 16-year-old Dayvion Jones.
"These incidents that we just spoke about are not gang-related, they're not drug-related and they're not random," said Gary Police Chief Brian Evans. "We believe that all the individuals were targeted by a specific person, it just so happened that it happened with a short period of time and we're working toward it."
Police said Sunday afternoon, King was shot and killed in the 2600-block of Jackson Street.
That evening, 37-year-old Arlandus Jackson was shot and killed outside in the 900-block of Williams Street.
Then, Monday morning, a Wright and Jones were both shot and killed outside of a home in the 2900-block of West 11th Avenue.
"He loved his family. He was being a father figure to our baby brother and now our baby brother doesn't have that no more," said Cy'eisha Howard, Wright's sister. "You all did that to a baby? I'm wearing his hoodie and I lost my baby brother and I can't see him. I could not even sleep in the crib because it feels weird."
"I'm in disbelief because you can live life knowing you did something to somebody but you're still on this earth?" said Wright's sister Qwin'nya Arnett. "And no one knows the real story of how it happened, how it began, how it started, how it ended, none of that. Parents are not supposed to bury their kids, we are supposed to bury our parents."
"These incidents that we just spoke about are not gang-related, they're not drug-related and they're not random," Chief Evans said. "We believe that all the individuals were targeted by a specific person, it just so happened that it happened with a short period of time and we're working toward it."
Mayor Jerome Prince vowed to make public safety his top priority and continue working with youth initiatives to deter this crime.
He and the police chief offered their deepest condolences to the victim's families.
The chief said the county is facing an "unprecedented" amount of violence.
"We have to invest very heavily in education, preventive measures for our youth and try to curtail some of the violence," he said. "We're not immune to it, we're part of it and we're doing everything that we can to investigate the crimes."
No arrests have been made in any of these cases, but they are working on some leads, police say.
