A Gary man charged with attempted murder last month had his charge elevated to murder upon the death of the victim.
Dontrell Lamar Williams, 23, is charged with murder in the shooting death of Jahlein Towner, 18, of Gary, a revised probable-cause affidavit said. Towner died July 31, six days after he was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medical Center with a gunshot to the left side of his head, court documents said.
Around 4:58 p.m. on July 25, police received a call of a man shot in the 600 block of Colfax Street, according to the probable cause affidavit. Medics attended to Towner, who was found injured in the street near a black car. He was transported to Methodist Hospital Northlake before being airlifted to the University of Chicago hospital.
A witness told police that he and the victim were walking south on Colfax, near their house, when a man in a green and white pickup yelled something at them, records state. They thought they knew the man, so they approached the truck. The man then drove north on Colfax, exited the vehicle, showed a gun and fired multiple shots at the two men, court records state. Then, the shooter fled north on Colfax before heading east on 5th Avenue.
The witness said the victim suffered a wound to the head, the affidavit states. He described the man who fired the gun as having shoulder-length dreadlocks and wearing black sunshades, a green and white long-sleeved work shirt, dark pants and black boots.
An officer found several spent bullet casings in the middle of the street, records state. Police found a green and white truck using its license plate reader system. It was spotted around 4:57 p.m., heading east on 5th Avenue and later it was spotted heading north on Clark Street from 5th Avenue around 5 p.m., court records state.
Police showed a photo of the truck to the witness, who identified it as the vehicle he had seen the suspect driving.
Police identified the truck as a 2024 Nissan Frontier owned by Merrillville-based business Greenix, the affidavit states. GPS data showed that it was headed for Cedar Lake and Lake County Sheriff’s officers were notified, eventually taking Williams into custody. The vehicle is equipped with a camera that takes photos every 3 seconds and Williams was seen pulling a firearm out of a bag, exiting the vehicle, and firing the gun, before getting back inside and driving away, court records state.
Williams’s initial hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.