Law and Order Gary
May 31, 2012 4:52PM
Updated: July 6, 2012 9:56AM
GARY
Highland man
arrested for gun
Police arrested a Highland man seen dropping a handgun into some tall weeds as officers approached him about 2:40 a.m. Thursday.
Residents in the 1900 block of West Ridge Road called for help after hearing gunfire in the area.
One 48-year-old man said he heard a knock at his door and a Hispanic man demanded someone come outside and made threats. The resident closed the door and heard shots.
Sgt. Thomas Pawlak saw a man standing in the area and watched as he dropped something. He recovered a pistol and then arrested John J. Berrios, 30, who showed police a toy gun in his pocket and denied he dropped the real weapon.
Berrios admitted he has a felony record.
Lake County court records show multiple arrests on charges including felony battery, criminal recklessness and unlawful possession of a weapon by a serious violent felon.
All cases heard before Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Ross Boswell were dismissed, except one that was reduced to a misdemeanor as part of a plea agreement.
Detective Cpl. Michael Barnes is investigating the incident.
Burglar tries to take Rally’s safe
The manager at Rally’s, 3600 Broadway, discovered Thursday morning someone broke into the restaurant overnight and tried to take the safe, police spokeswoman Cpl. Gabrielle King said.
He told police the door had been pried open and the safe was moved. It appeared the intruders tried to set the safe on fire, King said.
A crime scene investigator collected evidence from the scene.
Two charged with bank fraud
Two men have been charged with fraud on a financial institution and theft after a family member of a woman who died discovered more than $20,000 missing from the dead woman’s bank accounts.
Joseph L. Walters, 29, of the 3200 block of Randolph Place, Hobart, and Lynell Walters, 69, of the 400 block of Arthur Street, Gary, have been charged.
A cousin of Yvette Sutherland, who died Nov. 3 at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, had come to the area to arrange for Sutherland’s burial and close out her affairs. The woman told police Joseph Walters called about Sutherland’s death. Walters lived across the street from the home where Sutherland was staying while her new apartment was being prepared.
Within a few hours after Sutherland was taken to the hospital, money was transferred from Sutherland’s accounts and a $20,000 check was deposited into the Old Path Church Operating Account, and $3,000 was paid online to Prosperous Look.
Lynell Walters told police he withdrew $15,000 from his church account to pay for bills and told police he needed money bad, court records state.
Joseph Walters, when asked by police if he remembered a woman named Yvette, said she was “the woman who made the offerings.” Joseph Walters was the registered owner of an Internet address used to make the transfer from Sutherland’s savings to a checking account and the $3,000 payment to Prosperous Look, which Lynell Walters told police was another name for Old Path Church.
Sutherland was a member of St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Gary.
