Cops: Six accused of baseball bat beating after exchange of gang signs - nwitimes.com
HAMMOND | Six people were charged this week with beating a man with a baseball bat at a Hammond gas station following an exchange of gang signs, police said. Hammond residents Juan Alcaraz, 27, Javier Castillo, 19, Rodolfo C. Flores Jr. , 28, Francisco Gamez, 30, and Alexis Santos, 19, face charges of aggravated battery, criminal gang activity and criminal gang enhancement. Hammond police Lt. Richard Hoyda declined to comment if the gas station fight is at all tied to the recent homicides. The man who was beat with a baseball bat told police he was riding with his friend on Indianapolis Boulevard near 145th Street when a black Dodge Durango pulled up alongside them. The man told police his friend, a member of the Two Six gang, exchanged words with the man in the Durango. The man said the driver of the Durango tried to run them off the road and chased them down Chicago Street before stopping near Bishop Noll High School, according to the affidavit. The people in the Durango then approached the man and his friend at the gas station in the 400 block of Gostlin Street in Hammond. The man told police he grabbed a baseball bat to defend himself, but the men got a hold of it and used it to beat him, according to the affidavit. Source: www.nwitimes.com
