A group of teens is accused of forcing their way inside a Hammond home and battering a couple and their daughter.
Joseph Kropel, 18, of Chicago, and East Chicago residents Kameron Bennett, 19, and Lilliana Salazar, 18, are charged with five counts of battery and residential entry — all felonies, court records state. A female juvenile was booked at the same time, but it’s unknown if she was charged.
In the early morning hours of April 7, the residents of a home in the 1300 block of 150th Street in Hammond were hosting a party where people were drinking, according to the probable cause affidavit. Two of the people at the party left to get cigarettes before returning around 6 a.m. with Bennett, Kropel, Salazar, an unknown man, a female juvenile, and three other unknown women.
The homeowners told the group that the party was over, but they shoved their way into the home and started fighting with the homeowner, records state. Bennett then pulled a gun out and began pistol-whipping a man and a woman and punched a 3-year-old girl in the face. The five women were then fighting with the adult female who lived at the residence, court records state.
The male victim suffered multiple injuries, including bruising, swelling, and cuts to his face, hands, back, and arms, while the female resident suffered swelling and bruising to the right side of her head and a cut on her ear. The toddler girl sustained a cut on her upper lip and what appeared to be two red marks on the top of her chest area, the affidavit states.
Several windows and a television in the house were broken, and a PlayStation 5 and a firearm came up missing.
