4-Year-Old Boy Tory'on Dukes Dies, Pregnant Mother Injured, In Shooting In Gary, Indiana Apartment
GARY, Ind. (CBS)-- A A 4-year-old boy is dead after being shot while he was sleeping in his home in Gary early Monday morning.
As CBS 2's Jim Williams reported, Tory'on Dukes was right next to his mother at the time. She was also shot and was wounded.
On Monday afternoon, investigators were trying to determine who would fire into a home with children sleeping inside – and take the life of a 4-year-old boy who his grandmother said knew his alphabet.
The family had recently moved to the housing development at 23rd Avenue and Morton Place where the shooting happened. Barbecue grills line small backyards at the development, and a sign on one door says, "Thankful, Grateful, Blessed."
Destiny Cooper lives nearby.
"I was standing in the kitchen – we usually just stand in there – and I heard three shots," Cooper said. "We stepped in the living room… and we heard six more shots."
Multiple shots fired were fired into the home at 1:10 a.m. One of the bullets hit Tory'on in the chest, and he died at Methodist Northlake Hospital.
Tory'on's mother – who is three months pregnant – was wounded in the arm and suffered a graze wound to the face. Her condition was stabilized Monday afternoon.
Three other children here were not hurt.
"Here we've got somebody outside shooting into this housing development 10 days away from Christmas," said Gary Police Cmdr. Jack Hamady. "She lost her youngest child."
Meanwhile, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson issued a statement mourning Tory'on's loss and demanding that whoever was responsible for his death be held accountable.
"We are asking anyone with this information to come forward," Freeman-Wilson wrote. "This violence is not something the police can resolve alone."
It yet another tragedy for the family. Tory;on's father, according to the little boy's grandmother, was shot to death in Chicago just two months ago.
Police are trying to determine if the family was targeted. They say the boyfriend of the mother is cooperating with investigators.
CBS 2's Vi Nguyen contributed to this report.
