Two men and a woman were shot to death Tuesday near Calumet College in Hammond, the city’s second triple homicide in four months.
Passing motorists in the 900 block of 125th Street reported to police what they believed to be an accident involving three victims along the side of the road, said Chris Matonovich, Hammond police spokesman.
But upon the officer’s arrival, he said, they found “it was a crime scene, victims of a shooting.”
A man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene. A second male gunshot victim “was still alive,” said Matonovich. He was taken to St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago, where he died shortly after arrival.
The names of the victims were not released.
Matonovich described 125th Street as lined with trees and shrubs, with Lake George on both sides.
“They were a block and a half east of Calumet Avenue, the main thoroughfare of the city,” Matonovich said.
The scene also is about four or five blocks from Calumet College of St. Joseph, 2400 New York Ave.
“Most people traveling down that road are going to Calumet College,” Matonovich said of 125th Street.
The shooting victims did not appear to be students, he said.
“They appeared to be middle-age, adults over 18,” Matonovich said.
The shootings are under investigation.
“Detectives are out following a bunch of leads to see how this happened, who they were with and find a motive,” he said.
It is Hammond’s second triple homicide in four months, Matonovich said.
In October, the charred body of 19-year-old Angela Daley and her dying 2-year-old daughter Mariah were found in a burning apartment in the Columbia Center public housing complex. Daley was pregnant, and police counted the unborn child as a third victim. That case has not been solved.
“Now we are talking about two [triple homicides] in a four-month period,” Matonovich said. “It’s a tragedy.”
