On Halloween night in 2021, 13-year-old Thomas DeLaCruz Jr. was trick-or-treating with friends and family in his grandmother's Hammond, Indiana neighborhood. An earlier verbal altercation between a member of DeLaCruz's group, who was wearing a clown mask, and a man across the street escalated tragically. The man threatened to get a gun and shoot them.
Roughly 30 to 45 minutes later, a silver car carrying four to six individuals drove past the group of trick-or-treaters.
The vehicle parked, and the occupants exited. One of them appeared to be the same man who had made the earlier threats. As the trick-or-treaters attempted to flee, shots were fired into the crowd. Thomas DeLaCruz Jr. was struck and later pronounced dead at the hospital. Another teenager in the group was shot in the leg but survived.
In the aftermath of the shooting, a 23-year-old man from Gary, Indiana, named Desmond Crews, was apprehended by a Hammond police officer after being chased by the father of another child in the group. Crews was subsequently charged with murder and attempted murder. Court documents revealed that Crews confessed to his involvement, stating that someone in the car had given him a 9mm gun and that he felt compelled to shoot after others in the vehicle began firing. He admitted to seeing a child in a blue hooded sweatshirt fall to the ground.
Further investigation led to the identification of other suspects. In November 2022, Desmond Crews was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the murder of Thomas DeLaCruz Jr. Other individuals charged in connection with the shooting included Tariq Silas, Sheldon S. Stokes, and Richard Walker. Silas pleaded guilty to aggravated battery, while Stokes and Walker faced charges of murder and attempted murder.
