Indiana’s Desmond Crews opened fire on a group of kids, fatally shooting Thomas DeLaCruz Jr.
Thomas DeLaCruz Jr. (Hammond Police)
This Halloween season has turned out to be one of the meanest we’ve seen in America for years.
After a grumpy Texas mom was arrested for pointing a loaded gun at a 7-year-old child in search of treats, a far worse tragedy was unfolding in Indiana.
Desmond Crews, 23, allegedly opened fire on a group of trick-or-treaters this Halloween, killing one and wounding another, police said in charging documents published on Wednesday.
Crews, of Gary, was charged with murder and attempted murder in Sunday’s shooting that killed 13-year-old Thomas DeLaCruz Jr., and wounded another 13-year-old boy in Hammond, the Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
The suspect was apprehended after a father of one of the trick-or-treaters chased him. After his arrest, he told police he was handed a gun and felt he should shoot as his companions were also opening fire.
Authorities said an investigation into other possible suspects was ongoing.
Thomas’s mother, Jasmine Anderson, said her son from East Chicago, Indiana, was celebrating Halloween in his grandmother’s neighborhood with an aunt and friends when he was shot.
“He was being a kid out with his aunt trick-or-treating, walking with a group of kids,” a heartbroken Anderson told the Times of Northwest Indiana. “And some ignorant, sick person decided to shoot at kids.”
One of the youngsters in Thomas’s group told cops he exchanged words with a man roughly 45 minutes earlier who threatened to get a gun and “shoot them,” court documents show.
The group then noticed a silver car with five or six people inside who appeared to be staring at them. The occupants proceeded to get out — including the man who previously threatened the group — as another person from the car took a “shooting stance” before the shots rang out, records show.
Crews, who was wearing a yellow sweatshirt, was spotted running with a gun before he was later nabbed by cops. Surveillance video also showed him ditching a 9mm semi-automatic pistol and two magazines in a storage barrel, police said.
Crews allegedly admitted to being inside the silver car and told detectives the man who threatened the group of trick-or-treaters “kept saying a group of people could have rolled him and someone was going to die tonight,” court records show.
Crews claimed other people in the car handed him a gun and an extended magazine and then heard others inside the vehicle starting to shoot.
Hammond police said the other 13-year-old boy, who was shot in the leg, has been treated and released from a hospital.
“While we are thankful for the community support which led to the arrest of the person of interest, we are heartbroken that such an event could even occur,” cops said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the families of these boys.”
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