Woman shot to death in Portage home
August 13, 2015, 8:01 am
Chicago Post Tribune
Amy Lavalley
A Portage woman is dead and a man is critically wounded after what Portage police are calling an apparent murder-attempted suicide Wednesday afternoon in a subdivision on the city's east side.
The woman was dead at the scene and the man, who suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, was transported to Methodist Hospital Northlake campus in Gary, police said at the scene. Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris was at the home Wednesday evening. Harris identified the woman as 45-year-old Maria S. Contreras.
A neighbor who asked that his name not be used said he first thought he heard fireworks in the garage, then realized it was gunfire.
Police Chief Troy Williams said his department received a call at 4:12 p.m. about a verbal disturbance in the 3000 block of Edith Street in the Sandalwood Estates subdivision. The call was updated with information about possible shots fired. Williams said three or four shots were fired during the incident.
Officers found Contreras partially outside an open glass siding door at the back of the house. The man, found in the adjacent living room, was still breathing when he was transported to the hospital, Williams said, adding police found a semi-automatic handgun believed to be used in the shooting in the house.
Williams said the man and woman were at one time married, but that he did not know the status of their relationship. He wasn't aware of other calls to the house by police.
The couple's 22-year-old son was home at the time, officials said.
"He ran out of the house shortly after shots were fired or as the shots were fired," Williams said, adding the couple also has a daughter in college.
Neighbors gathered in clusters in the neighborhood, which was lined with police cars, the police department's mobile investigations unit, and the coroner's van. The house was marked off with yellow crime scene tape.
One neighbor, who declined to give his name, said the couple had lived there around nine years.
The neighbor said the man worked as a mechanic and they shared an interest in cars, and the neighbor often talked to the couple's son about race cars.
"They're a quiet family. We didn't hear nothing from them," he said, adding other than car talk. "It was normal. It was hi-bye."
The neighbor was outside with his toddler son when he heard the gunshots and first thought the sound was fireworks in the garage, he said.
"I heard three successive gunshots, a loud scream and another gunshot, then silence. That's when the son started running toward me," the neighbor said. "You're doing your daily routine and stuff like this happens. It changes your life in a second."
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