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Baby killed in Gary, Ind., carjacking

ABC7 Chicago
1/29/2008

GARY, IN (WLS) -- A person of interest is being questioned in a fatal carjacking, according to Gary, Ind. police.

Officials are not labeling that person as a suspect, but said the 33-year old was taken into custody in Portage, Ind., on a traffic warrant. Police will not say how he's related to the carjacking in downtown Gary. Gary's mayor called the man an "extreme" person of interest.

Kwana Shaw, 29, was loading her 13-month-old baby into the backseat of her SUV when she was shot around 7:30 p.m. Monday. Shaw is hospitalized in critical condition and is expected to undergo surgery. Her son, Josiah, was killed.

"Taking any life is terrible but to shoot a child makes it worse," said Cmdr. Samuel Roberts, Gary Police Dept.

The suspect, who is still on the run, left Shaw in the street and took off in the car with the baby still inside.

"She stated a suspect approached her as she was placing the child in the red Ford Explorer. He shot her and took the child with him in the vehicle," said Cmdr. Samuel Roberts, Gary Police Department.

Investigators found the abandoned Ford Explorer along 21st Avenue.

"The man was aware there was a child there because she was placing the kid in the vehicle when he approached so he was well aware," said Cmdr. Roberts. "That takes a very low individual to do something like that. To take any life is terrible, to shoot a child makes it even worse."

Gary police called in SWAT teams and a canine unit. They spent much of the night searching for the killer.

"We are junkyard dog tenacity going after this because we don't want any homicides in Gary, Ind.," said Mayor Rudy Clay, Gary.

Gary police SWAT teams converged on the downtrodden downtown area where Shaw and her son were shot. The mayor hopes the police presence will encourage people to come forward with information.

"There will be no peace and tranquility here in Gary, Indiana, until we catch this person," said Mayor Clay. "You cannot hesitate on cooperating here because you may be next. You can't allow a person to get away with something like this if you know you need to stand up and tell the police department."

Anyone with information should call the Gary Police Department.

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Toddler killed, mom hurt in carjacking - Gary police have 'person of interest,' but no charges yet

Steve Schmadeke
Chicago Tribune
January 30, 2008

As Kwana Shaw buckled her infant son into his car seat outside a friend's home in Gary Monday night, a man approached and started shooting.

Family friends said Shaw , 29, tried to shield her 13-month-old boy, Josiah , with her own body and was shot in the stomach. The man drove away from the 500 block of East 21st Place in Shaw 's car; police found the boy two hours later, still strapped into his car seat, bleeding from a gunshot wound in the head, said Gary Police Cmdr. Samuel Roberts Jr.

Josiah died later in Gary Methodist Hospital from gunshot wounds in the chin and left pelvic area, according to the Lake County coroner's office. His mother remained in the hospital's intensive care unit after undergoing surgery Tuesday morning, the family's pastor said.

As of noon Tuesday, Shaw remained unconscious and had not yet been told her son died. Family members declined to comment Tuesday.

A person of interest was taken into custody by Gary police in Portage, Ind., on a traffic warrant, but he has not been charged in connection with the crime, Roberts said. Roberts would not comment when asked if the man was related to either the boy or his mother.

For now, the crime is considered a carjacking, Roberts said, though nothing was taken from the red Ford Explorer, which police recovered in the 1700 block of Virginia Street. Police investigators continued to search for suspects, but no warrants had been issued Tuesday morning, he said.

The death of Josiah Shaw came just one day after the family celebrated his grandmother Donna Shaw 's 51st birthday, said Pastor Tommy Kimble of Centennial United Methodist Church, where the family has attended services for decades and where Donna Shaw was the church's council leader. A very good-natured child, Josiah sat contentedly in his Sunday best on relatives' laps during services that day, Kimble said.

His mother, Kwana, had sung in the church choir until the birth of her son, who was was baptized at the church.

Kimble said he spent Monday night with the Shaw family at the hospital.

"They don't have any idea as to why it happened," he said. "Gary is just Gary, and these things -- they're senseless."

"It hurts," Kimble said after a long pause. "It's very painful."

Word of the shooting quickly spread through the church's "prayer line," a telephone tree that members use to share prayer requests. Church trustee Freddie McCreary, 71, said he got a call about 6 a.m.

"He was one of our own," an emotional McCreary said of Josiah . "It's just really heartbreaking."

The killing of a baby stunned Gary residents, even those who lived through the city's wave of violence in the 1990s. A spokeswoman for Mayor Rudy Clay said there would be no rest until those responsible for the killing were caught. Police canvassed the area where the carjacking took place Tuesday morning.

The city, with slightly fewer than 100,000 residents, had 48 murders in 2006, according to federal data, down from the 132 homicides in 1995. There were 34 murders in the first six months of last year.

Roberts said the death of Josiah Shaw was not a reflection of the state of the city.

"It says something about the individual that did it," Roberts said. "People in Gary are God-fearing, law-abiding citizens. This is just one nut."

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Baby's father person of interest in deadly carjacking

By Sarah Schulte
ABC7 Chicago
1/30/2008

GARY, IN (WLS)--In Gary, Indiana, police continue to question a person of interest in a fatal shooting that left a baby dead and his mother wounded.
That person of interest is the baby's father. While the facts of this case may point to a domestic situation, police at this point are still classifying this as a carjacking.

The mayor and the community want this crime solved soon. Despite the horrible weather Tuesday night, a small group of Gary residents came out to rally and passed out anti-violence fliers. They're outraged over the shooting death of a 13-month-old boy. Police are holding his father in custody as a person of interest.

"Yesterday we received information about a person of interest that lived in a nearby city. We were able to locate that person, go to his home, arrest him on an outstanding warrant. He's been held on the warrant for failure to appear in an unrelated matter," said Samuel Roberts, Gary Police Commander.

Police say at this point they are not ready to call the baby's father a suspect.

It was about 7:30 on Monday night when the mother, Kwana Shaw, 29, called police to say she had just been carjacked. Parked outside of the Lancaster Homes Complex, she says she was in the process of putting the baby, Josiah, in his car seat when she was shot. The offender took off with Josiah in Shaw's red Ford Explorer.

"We're not calling it a domestic incident as of yet. We still have it classified as a carjacking. However, we're not ruling anything out," said Roberts.

A short time later the Ford Explorer was found a few blocks away. The offender had fled. Police discovered Josiah shot in his car seat multiple times.

Early reports had said the baby's father may have met Shaw at a friend's house shortly before the shooting, but now police are saying that's not the case.

"I have no information indicating that they met up or were going to meet," said Roberts.

The baby's mother remains in critical condition at a hospital in Gary. She was shot once, and her lung was destroyed. Police say she is one the of key factors in solving this crime. They say they have not been able to talk to her yet because of her critical condition.

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'Oh my god, her baby in the truck'
Police Release 911 Audio From Shooting Of Mother, Baby

Christine Kraly
The Times
1/31/08

GARY | Gary police believe whoever killed a 13-month-old boy and wounded his mother in a Monday night carjacking did not work alone, police said Wednesday.

The boy's father was being held as a "person of interest" in the case Wednesday, while Gary police released recordings of 911 calls made after the shooting.

During one of the calls, a panicked woman identifies herself as Kwana Shaw's friend and pleads for help.

"They just stole her truck, and her baby in it," she cries into the phone. "I think he shot her. Oh my god," she says, "her baby in the truck."

"Please hurry up," she cries.

Both of the callers said the shooting took place at Lancaster Apartments at 21st Avenue and Virginia Street.

Kwana Shaw, 29, was putting her son into her sport utility vehicle in the 500 block of West 21st in Gary when a man approached her and shot her, Gary police Cmdr. Samuel Roberts said.

Police later found the boy wounded in the SUV at the intersection of 17th Avenue and Virginia Street. The boy was taken to the hospital and the SUV was taken to the Lake County crime lab for analysis, Roberts said.

Josiah Shaw, of the 9600 block of West 77th Street in Schererville, suffered gunshot wounds to the chin and pelvis, and was pronounced dead at the Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary.

Kwana Shaw survived the shooting, but was critically injured. More information on her condition was not available Thursday.

Josiah Shaw's father, Terry L. Bethel, 34, of Portage, was picked up there on a failure-to-appear traffic warrant and was in custody of Porter County authorities.

"Information we received from people led us to want to talk to him more closely," Roberts said.

Roberts said Bethel works at the ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor plant, and there is a "50-50 chance" that charges will be filed against him in the shootings.

A woman who answered the door at Bethel's listed address said she had no comment. The home, a bi-level in the newer Southfield Estates subdivision, had a "for sale" sign in the front yard.

There are no funeral arrangements yet for Josiah Shaw as his mother recovers.

As his legal custodian, Kwana Shaw would have to make arrangements for another person to release him, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Jeff Wells.

Kwana Shaw had not been told as of Wednesday afternoon that her son had died, the family's pastor said.

Pastor Tommy Kimble, who baptized Josiah Shaw, said he likely will handle services at Gary's Centennial United Methodist Church, 777 Rhode Island St.

Kimble returned to the hospital Wednesday afternoon to visit and pray with the Shaw family, which he has done all week. Kwana, who lost a lot of blood in her shooting, was scheduled to undergo another surgery Wednesday, he said.

The Shaw family grew up in Gary and continued to attend Centennial after moving to Schererville. The church threw Kwana Shaw a baby shower before Josiah's arrival.

"It took a big toll on us," Kimble said of the shootings. "But we're a praying church."

Kimble described Kwana Shaw as "quiet and very loving," and said the 1996 Horace Mann graduate had been considering going to college. An orientation night scheduled for Monday had been cancelled, freeing her to visit friends in Gary, Kimble said.

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Gary shootings not carjacking, family says - They say slain boy's mom was threatened

Steve Schmadeke
Chicago Tribune
February 1, 2008

The family of an infant fatally shot in Gary. Monday night while strapped into the back of his mother's car said they believe his death stemmed from a personal dispute, not a carjacking as police have theorized.

Kwana Shaw , 29, of Schererville, Ind. had stopped for a few minutes to visit a friend on the 500 block of East 21st Place, her family said. She was buckling her son, dressed in a blue snowsuit, into the back of her red Ford Explorer when a gunman came up behind her, grabbed her keys and shot her, her family said. The man drove the Ford a few blocks away, shot the 13-month-old boy, and fled.

Gary police have interviewed a "person of interest" but said "we have no information at this point" that he pulled the trigger, said Cmdr. Samuel Roberts. The Portage, Ind. man spoke with investigators, but Roberts would not say whether he was cooperative. The man, who had been held at the Porter County jail since shortly after the shooting, was scheduled to be released Thursday after posting $4,000 bail on a traffic warrant.

Roberts said the investigation remains focused on northwest Indiana, where police are searching for others who may have been involved, and that no warrants have been issued for other suspects.

Shaw , 29, is in critical condition at Methodist Hospital in Gary, heavily sedated and breathing with help from a respirator, according to her father, Samuel Shaw . There are so many machines in her ICU room that there is no room for flowers or cards.

Samuel Shaw said his daughter moved in with him after someone threatened to kill her and the baby.

Josiah Shaw was a "miracle baby" who was born without a heartbeat but had since thrived, his grandfather said. His name came from the Bible, and the boy liked to listen to his grandfather read from Scripture. His mother, the younger of two children, is a "really sweet person" planning to become a teacher in the Gary school district, Shaw said.

Gary police on Wednesday released two 911 calls, one from Kwana Shaw 's best friend.

"Somebody just stole my best friend's truck with her baby in it. I think he shot her," the friend told the 911 dispatcher. "Oh my god, her baby's in the car," the friend said. "Please hurry up."

In the second call, a male said he saw Shaw lying on the ground "screaming for help."

Community groups in Gary have been passing out fliers, Roberts said, and a Chicago group has offered a $1,000 reward.

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Shooting part of paternity coverup?

Christine Kraly
The Times
2/2/2008

GARY | The Lake County prosecutor said he is asking that an investigation into the shooting death of a 13-month-old Gary boy be wrapped into a case involving a possible conspiracy to hide a child's paternity.

Terry Bethel, 34, has been named as a person of interest in the Monday shooting death of his son, Josiah Shaw, of Schererville, police have said.

Prosecutors are "looking deeply" into any possible connection between a case in which Bethel allegedly conspired to disprove he fathered a child and the carjacking that killed Josiah and wounded the boy's mother, Prosecutor Bernard Carter said Friday.

Carter's office is reviewing a case in which a man allegedly tried to get a driver's license using Bethel's identification in the hopes of falsely taking a paternity test while posing as Bethel, Carter said.

A source familiar with the case said with "90 percent" certainty that the child involved in the conspiracy case is Josiah Shaw.

"He (Bethel) is truly not the victim in it," Carter said of the false identity investigation. "He's involved in a conspiracy."

Neither Bethel, who has six children, nor his unnamed counterpart in the case, have been charged, Carter said.

Bethel has an outstanding child support order in Lake County, a source close to the investigation said.

On Monday, Kwana Shaw, 29, was buckling her son, Josiah Shaw, into her sport utility vehicle in Gary when a man approached her and shot her, Gary police Cmdr. Samuel Roberts said.

Police said they later found Josiah Shaw wounded in the SUV at the intersection of 17th Avenue and Virginia Street.

The boy suffered gunshot wounds to the chin and pelvis and was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospitals Northlake in Gary.

The SUV was taken to the Lake County crime lab for analysis, the results of which are still unknown, Roberts said.

Bethel, who also goes by the name Terry Noel, was arrested in Portage Tuesday on a traffic warrant unrelated to the shooting and remained in Porter County Jail on a $4,000 bond Friday, authorities said. He has not faced any charges related to the shooting.

Bethel, who also faces an unrelated traffic warrant in Gary, remains a person of interest, Roberts said.

A relative of Terry Bethel, also questioned in the shooting, was in Gary police custody Friday, police said. Police said they already were questioning Joe Noel, 36, about the shooting when they learned of an outstanding warrant in Ohio. Authorities in Ohio are expected to request Joe Noel's extradition.

Authorities would not elaborate on Joe Noel's precise relationship to Terry Bethel.

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'Person of interest' in Gary baby's killing freed on bail

Lori Caldwell
The Post-Tribune
February 6, 2008

GARY -- After a full week behind bars, Terry Bethel Noel is out of jail after family members posted $5,000 to get him released Monday night.
Noel, 34, of Portage is one "person of interest'' in the shooting death of Noel's son, 13-month-old Josiah Shaw, whose mother, Kwana Shaw, 29, was critically wounded in the Jan. 28 attack.

Shaw remains hospitalized in serious condition, police said.

Gary detectives hoped someone with direct knowledge of the crime would see Josiah's smiling face in the newspaper and call with details leading to the arrest of those involved with the shooting.

Deputy Chief Thomas Branson asked readers to look at Josiah and, "Please help us to unmask the evil face that took Josiah from us."

The woman Shaw was visiting at Lancaster apartments called 911 after Shaw was shot and reported a masked man fled in Shaw's truck with the baby, who was found shot twice several blocks away.

Although police have received some additional calls since Josiah's photo was published Tuesday, they say no new information has been provided. Anyone with information about the shooting can call Detective Cpl. Dan Callahan at 881-4738.

Several people called the Post-Tribune Tuesday expressing outrage that an innocent child would be killed because his father didn't want to pay support for a son born out of wedlock.

State police detectives were investigating an identity deception case involving Noel, who convinced a friend to obtain a driver's license with the friend's face and Noel's name. The friend told ISP investigators Noel was involved in a paternity matter and didn't want his wife to know.

Shaw's mother said Noel had threatened her daughter and grandson after the court matter began early last year.

Noel, the married father of six, works at ArcelorMittal's Burns Harbor Plant.

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Police, citizens group ask for information in child's death

Christine Kraly
The Times
2/8/2008

GARY | Gary police and a citizens group hope drawing more attention to last week's shooting death of a 13-month-old Schererville baby will elicit more information in the case.

The Concerned Citizens Against Violence in Gary picketed Thursday at the corner of 21st Place and Virginia Street, the scene where police say someone shot 29-year-old Kwana Shaw and drove off in her sport utility vehicle with her son inside. The boy was later found with gunshot wounds inside the vehicle at another location in the city.

The group carried signs Thursday as a loudspeaker blared recordings of two 911 calls made to police after the shooting.

"As hard as it is to hear, it has to be heard," organizer Dwight Taylor said. "We've got a baby killer on the loose."

The intersection is well traveled, with stores or apartment buildings on each of the four corners.

"Somebody had to see something," Taylor said.

Taylor said he is concerned fear may be keeping people from providing information to police.

Cmdr. Samuel Roberts said police are "concerned that we're not getting all the information that we need."

Detectives are reviewing several investigative reports in the case and could have an update today, Gary police Cmdr. Bruce Outlaw said.

On Jan. 28, Kwana Shaw was buckling her son, Josiah Shaw, into her sport utility vehicle in Gary when a man approached her and shot her, Roberts said.

Police said they later found Josiah Shaw wounded in the SUV. The boy suffered gunshot wounds to the chin and pelvis and was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospitals Northlake in Gary.

Josiah Shaw's father, Terry Bethel, 34, has been named a person of interest in the shooting.

Bethel, also known as Terry Noel, posted a $5,000 bond and was released Monday from Gary City Jail on traffic warrants in Gary and Portage unrelated to his son's slaying, police said.

Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter has asked the shooting investigation be combined into a separate case in which Bethel allegedly conspired to disprove he fathered a child.

Gary police ask that anyone with information about the shooting leave information anonymously on the Police Department's crime tip hot line at (866) 274-6347.