A Gary woman was charged with murder Friday for allegedly killing her child’s father in her second-floor apartment.
Shasta M. Young, 38, is in custody, held without bond
An initial hearing was scheduled for Monday.
The victim, Willie Perry, 59, of Gary, was shot once in the chest. He was pronounced dead there at 12:10 p.m. His death was ruled a homicide.
Police responded at 11:20 a.m. June 14 to the 5700 block of Cypress Avenue in Gary.
Lake County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force Detective David Moran wrote Young sat on the sofa while her 18-month-old daughter watched TV. She nodded to the door — where Perry lay outside — when he asked who the toddler’s father was.
“It’s up here,” Young yelled earlier to police officers who first arrived.
The gun was on the kitchen table.
“I was just defending myself, so it’s not a problem,” she told police later in an interview at the Gary Police Station.
They had a split agreement on the weekends with Perry returning the girl by Friday morning. That morning, she told him she needed 30 more minutes. He was already on his way and said he had to go to work.
She was getting ready and he walked inside, holding the girl and a “camera.” He shoved it in her face and they “started tussling,” she said.
She grabbed a gun on her sofa. She told investigators she thought she put the baby on the sofa and then grabbed the gun. It was supposed to be a warning shot to “scare” him, she said.
Perry recorded the entire encounter on his cell phone, in an hour-plus clip.
As he walks in, Young asks if he’s got their child. Perry said she’s still sleepy and just woke up, then hands the baby to her.
“Wait, what are you doing,” he asks.
There’s a long bang. Perry screams and falls down.
Young calls a relative.
“Can you come get me, I just called 911, because I thought Willie was going to play me,” she said, according to documents. “He is laying in the hall. Please come, please,”
The relative says they have to go to work.
“I just shot Willie,” Young said.
mcolias@post-trib.com
