Staff report

A pregnant Gary woman is in stable condition Wednesday afternoon after a shooting earlier in which the suspect barricaded herself in her house with her children.

Officers were called to the 2000 block of Vermont Street around 10:49 a.m. on Wednesday because of shots fired, Gary Police spokeswoman Lt. Dawn Westerfield said in a release. They found a woman who had been shot in the leg outside a home there, she said.

As police assessed the situation, the alleged shooter barricaded herself in her home with her three teenage children, said Gary Police Cmdr. Jack Hamady, who was on the scene. Gary Police, with assistance from the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, Hammond Police Department and District 1 SWAT, were able to get the woman and her 25-year-old daughter out of the house and into custody before securing the younger children, said Hamady, who described the scene as “pretty chaotic.”

Tensions started building Tuesday evening, according to

the victim’s sister. The woman’s 12-year-old daughter had gotten into a physical fight with one of the suspect’s children over stolen money, she said as neighbors and family members watched police wrap up the scene.

The family called the police, who initially defused the situation, but then the suspect continued to harass the neighbors and called police several more times, she said. At that point, the woman and other family members, who were in town for a funeral Wednesday morning, left to spend the night at a hotel to get away from the situation.

When the family returned Wednesday morning to change clothes for the funeral, the children started fighting again, the woman said. The suspect came out of the house and, after her 25-year-old daughter handed her a gun, started “shooting all over the place,” the woman said.

“She almost shot my other sister in the back. It was close to 11 (a.m.),” the woman said. “I’ve been here (in the neighborhood) five years, and (the suspect) has been here for two. We’ve had trouble with her constantly.

“(The suspect) has run into my sister’s house and pulled a gun before, but we never thought she’d start shooting.”

The woman said her daughter, who was in the initial altercation, is “safe and doing fine.”

Hamady said the suspect’s younger children were taken to the Gary Police Department and will be released to relatives. He expected charges would be filed against the suspect and the older daughter as the investigation unfolds.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.