Charges of murder and murder in perpetration of robbery have been filed against a Gary man in a shooting at a Gary gas station.
Demonta Lamont Jarrett, 23, was charged in the shooting death of Steven Wayne Marquand, 40, of Cedar Lake.
Video surveillance footage recorded shortly before 9 p.m. Oct. 18 at the gas station at 4890 Maryland St. shows Marquand making two purchases at the gas station. A man whose car was at a nearby gas pump followed Marquand into the station, where some words were exchanged, the probable cause affidavit states.
Marquand looked at the man, finished his transaction and left the store, where he returned to his car and sat with the door open. The man who had followed Marquand appeared angry or agitated, ran to Marquand’s car and kicked the interior of the driver’s-side door, and it opened wider, where a struggle occurred, records state.
The assailant came out of the car, and Marquand tried to drive away, causing the door to shut on the man and the handgun he was holding to fly through the air before it landed on the pavement, records state. The man picked up the gun, ran back to his car and left the station, court records state.
Marquand’s girlfriend, who was in the car at the time of the shooting, told police she and Marquand had stopped at the gas station to buy cigarettes, pop and ice, records state. The woman told police that after Marquand got into the car, a man ran up to the car and demanded money from him, records state.
The woman said the next thing she heard was a gunshot. As Marquand began driving east on 49th Avenue, he told his girlfriend he’d been shot, records state. Marquand began to lose consciousness, but the woman managed to pull the car over, get out and climb onto Marquand’s lap. The woman drove to the 5000 block of Maryland Street, where they had been staying, and called police, records state.
One of the detectives recognized the gunman in the surveillance video as an individual with whom he’d had prior contact and identified him as Jarrett, court records state.
U.S. marshals located the car in the 1000 block of West 52nd Place in Gary, near where the mother of Jarrett’s children lives. The woman told police Jarrett had taken her car two to three weeks before the shooting, records state. The car was dropped off near her home on West 52nd Drive in Gary early Oct. 19.
Ruth Ann Krause is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
