On a summer evening in Gary, Indiana, Othello Harris, a 38-year-old Black man, was fatally shot at his own home. Police were called to the 2500 block of Monroe Street at 9:12 p.m. on Friday, July 21, 2023, for a report of a person with a gunshot wound. When they arrived, they were met by a crying woman who told them her husband had been shot. She led officers to the back of the residence, where they found Harris suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The coroner later ruled his death a homicide.
Fourteen years before his own violent death, Harris was the subject of a different murder investigation. In July 2009, a 24-year-old Harris was arrested in Columbia, Missouri. A police officer on patrol recognized him as matching the description of a suspect in another local crime. When the officer approached, Harris ran and initially gave a fake name, but he was captured within minutes. A background check revealed he was wanted on outstanding warrants from Gary for a March 2008 homicide and for cocaine possession.
The 2008 warrants stemmed from the death of Jacob Cottom, 22. According to reports at the time, Harris was accused of shooting Cottom with a sawed-off shotgun inside a Gary housing project. It was alleged that Harris and two other men then wrapped Cottom’s body in a shower curtain, put it in a trash bin, doused it with gasoline, and set it on fire. Following his 2009 arrest in Missouri, Harris was charged with resisting arrest and was scheduled for an extradition hearing on August 14, 2009, to face the charges in Indiana.
The investigation into who killed Othello Harris is ongoing. As of the last public reports in July 2023, no arrests had been made, and authorities had not identified any suspects in his shooting. His murder remains unsolved.
