People living in Hammond who shot off their firearms to celebrate the new year can expect the city to take interest in them in ways they may not appreciate.
The City of Hammond counted 46 confirmed calls of “shots fired” between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. New Year’s Eve, Mayor Tom McDermott confirmed Tuesday after releasing a map showing the pinned areas on social media. But because there’s no state law against firing shots in the air, the department’s hands are sort of tied as to any sort of prosecution, he said.
The city did pass an ordinance in July updating a city law that prohibits firing a weapon in the city and can fine the culprit $2,500 on top of any other charges filed against. Anyone who doesn’t pay that fine on time would see it get attached as a lien on the property, McDermott told the Post-Tribune at the time.
The problem is catching scofflaws in the act, McDermott said Tuesday; by time officers arrive at the property, the shooters have often disbanded, leaving only spent shells — but no definitive culprit — behind.
“It’s a hard battle to fight, and with little-to-no support from the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office,” he said. “And you have to remember that every time someone shoots their gun in the air, very few are shooting just once; they’re likely unloading their clips, so that’s at least 10 bullets, right? So now, we have 46 separate residences where at least one gun shot off 10 rounds at one time. That’s hundreds, if not thousands of bullets going into the air.”
And bullets, regardless of the weather, never come straight down, as McDermott and the city learned the hard way July 1, 2017, when 13-year-old Noah Inman was struck and killed by a stray bullet fired on the Fourth of July as he played basketball with friends. Six months later in 2017, then-State Representative Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, proposed legislation to the General Assembly seeking to make firing a loaded gun into the air within municipality limits but without legal justification a Level 6 felony. It never received a hearing.
Griffith resident Laurie Cain found out bullets can travel over the holiday as well. Cain said she and boyfriend Tom Keown were on their way home from a gathering when her daughter, Evelyn Cain, called. Evelyn Cain was home with her boyfriend when she heard what sounded like “somebody throwing like a rock through the window” in the kitchen, Laurie Cain said.
Fearing someone was trying to break into the house, Evelyn Cain walked into the kitchen and noticed a hole in the ceiling, Laurie Cain said. She then looked around the floor and found a bullet.
“I was like ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’” Laurie Cain recalled saying.
She called the non-emergency line of the Griffith Police, who sent an officer out to investigate. The officer, she said, told them they weren’t the only ones to experience a bullet damaging property around New Year’s.
Evelyn Cain said her friends didn’t believe her at first until she sent them a picture of the bullet.
“So out of curiosity, I googled that and there are actually pictures that were similar to pictures I posted and it was listed under, you know, bullets coming through the roof,” Evelyn Cain said.
But even if catching someone shooting into the air is tough, that doesn’t mean the city’s Code Enforcement and Fire Departments can’t visit the properties where people are suspected to have shot their guns to check for code violations, fire hazards and other things that could garner them fines, he said. They also can anticipate getting put on social-media blast, as McDermott did to a property owner found to have New Year’s Eve shooters living at their property in the 3700 block of Towle Avenue.
“I want these people uncomfortable, and I want them to go away,” McDermott said.
State Representatives Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond; and Michael Andrade, D-Munster, took up the mantle of criminalizing recklessly firing guns within city limits again two years ago. Their bill also didn’t receive a hearing, McDermott said, but if they or anyone is willing to try again, McDermott would go the distance with them.
“This is huge problem, and not just in Hammond. It’s all over the state,” McDermott said. “But our GOP General Assembly is ignoring it because they’ve been bought and paid by the gun lobby.
“Maybe if we’re persistent, it’ll pay off.”
McDermott will address the issue at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 4 during his first Mayor’s Night Out of the year at the Jean Shepherd Community Center, 3031 J.F. Mahoney Dr., Hammond.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
