An apparent after-prom party spun out of control late Saturday night as multiple shots were fired at a residence in the Town of Pines, leaving one male juvenile dead and two youngsters wounded, police said.
The Porter County Sheriff’s Office released few details about the incident, which occurred around 11 p.m. at a residence in the 1700 block of Liberty Avenue, which is a short north-south street between U.S. 12 and U.S. 20 in the Town of Pines.
After-prom party shooting victim identified as 17-year-old from Porter County
The dead juvenile male hasn’t been identified. The sheriff’s office said an 18-year-old female and a male juvenile were also shot. Their names were also not being released.
The party reportedly followed Michigan City High School’s prom.
Sgt. Ben McFalls said the sheriff’s office couldn’t answer questions because it’s an ongoing investigation.
Kimberly Horn and Mike Schnell, neighbors who live on the west side of Liberty Avenue, were out in their front yards on a serene, sunny Sunday morning, surveying the shooting’s aftermath. They said the owner of the green house across from them rents it out, mostly to people who are vacationing in the Indiana Dunes.
On Saturday night, the house was apparently being rented for an after-prom party and there were cars parked up and down the short narrow street, the two neighbors said.
One gunshot shattered Horn’s front door window, passed through the door and ended up hitting the entertainment center in the front room. The bullet was found on the carpet.
Horn said she happened to be in another area of the house, watching the television show “Tracker.” At that point in the television program, shots were being fired, so Horn said she didn’t realize that a shooting was occurring right outside.
It wasn’t until a police officer tapped on her front window that she found her shattered front door window and the bullet hole. Her house was now taped off as part of a crime scene.
Schnell was outside when the shooting occurred. He was trying to keep cars from parking in his front yard. There are tire tracks in his front yard, and his mailbox is knocked over to prove it.
Cars were parked everywhere and some were pulling up to let people out to go to the party in the green house.
Someone set off a pack of fireworks in the street. Schnell said he knew that it was fireworks, because “I used to fire them off myself” when he was younger.
Apparently, around the same time, that’s when the multiple shots were fired. Schnell said he believes the shooting happened outside the residence.
“As soon as the firecrackers went off, all hell broke loose. All of a sudden, at least 20 people were running from the house. They ran down behind my house,” Schell said.
People also ran to the cars to get away from the scene.
“They made a three-lane road out of Liberty (Avenue),” Schnell said, noting that it’s a narrow, two-lane road. He said there was a near head-on crash.
Schnell said he went inside his house and called police, who told him to stay indoors.
Within a short time, there were at least a dozen police cars on Liberty Avenue.
Schnell said he could hear the officers yelling at those who were still at the scene to “get the (expletive) on the ground.”
One young girl sat down near Horn’s driveway, crying uncontrollably over what had happened, Schnell and Horn said.
While there were multiple police vehicles on the street, Schnell and Horn said they didn’t see anyone transported by fire emergency vehicles from the scene. Schnell speculated that the people hurt were taken by private vehicle to the hospital.
Police spent most of the early morning hours processing the shooting scene.
Schnell said at one point, helicopters circled the neighborhood. He said an officer told him they were using infrared technology to see if anyone could be hiding in the surrounding area.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
