Hammond man faces new attempted murder charge in alleged retaliation case

A Hammond man being held in Lake County Jail on a prior attempted murder case and a subsequent shooting has been charged with attempted murder in what police describe as a retaliation shooting two days after the man’s father was killed.

Martin Hurtado Jr., 20, whose bail was revoked on Dec. 1 in a 2013 attempted murder case, has been charged in an Oct. 30 gang shooting that seriously wounded a Hammond woman, who was shot several times about 10 p.m. as she sat on her front porch smoking a cigarette in the 400 block of Waltham Street in Hammond.

The victim told police two Hispanic men wearing all black walked up and started firing. The woman managed to walk back into the house, where she collapsed. Court records state she had been a mother figure to a member of a rival gang and was a former tenant of Hurtado’s father, Martin Hurtado Sr.

Hrtado Sr. was fatally shot Oct. 28 in the 800 block of State Street of Hammond, court records state. Police learned that the woman was shot in retaliation for the killing of the elder Hurtado, court records state.

The woman suffered gunshot wounds to the upper left side of her back, right leg and two wounds to her right buttocks and underwent four surgeries.

Hurtado also is charged with aggravated battery, battery by means of a deadly weapon, battery resulting in serious bodily injury, and criminal recklessness charges for creating a risk to the victim’s 10-year-old daughter.

Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Ross Boswell revoked Hurtado’s bond in an attempted murder case stemming from a June 6, 2013, shooting in Hammond after charges were filed in a Nov. 15 incident in which two people were wounded in the 900 block of Carroll Street in Hammond.