Family wants more accountability
Answers sought for police shooting of Gary man in 2019
Community activists gathered Wednesday outside the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point to demand transparency into the investigation of a 2019 Gary police shooting of an 83-year-old man.
Melvin Bouler was shot in November 2019. He died Jan. 4, 2020, from shots fired at him by police while he was sitting behind the wheel of his car in front of a friend’s residence in the 2400 block of Roosevelt Street.
Bouler went into the home and then later attempted to leave as Gary officers responded to a call about an intoxicated person with a gun, according to reports. Officers ordered Bouler, who was hard of hearing and had a gun, out of the car and then allegedly shot into the car’s windshield when he didn’t comply, seriously wounding him.
Bouler’s son, Eric, was at the event flanked by his attorneys Robert L. Beeman II and Winston Cooks, who are representing the family in a civil suit against the city and the Gary Police Department. Eric Bouler said his father never made it out of the hospital and spent those last few weeks largely incoherent until his January death.
Eric Bouler said the stress was so much for his mother, who was married to Bouler for almost 64 years, that she died three months after her husband.
He said his father loved Gary. “Daddy opted to stay in Gary when many families opted to leave,” Bouler said. “The worst thing about betrayal is it never comes from your enemies.”
Participants carried signs reading “Justice for Melvin” and shouted chants calling for justice and for the community to fight back. Some people carried poster-size photos of Bouler’s alleged windshield, where 10 bullet holes in the vicinity of the driver’s seat
could be clearly counted.
The Lake County Sheriff ’s Department conducted the investigation into the shooting. The results were turned over to the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office. There has been no public comment from police or the prosecutor on the outcome of the investigation, who the officers involved in the shooting were and whether those officers responsible were put on administrative duty.
Late Monday, the prosecutor’s office announced it would convene a grand jury to determine whether charges were warranted in the case.
Activists say the Monday announcement was in response to their planned protest. Lorrell Kilpatrick, with Black Lives Matter — Gary said neither the community nor the family had heard a word about the case until Monday.
Kim McGee, also with BLM — Gary, said the group submitted a letter to Carter in July seeking transparency but did not receive a response.
“Why has it taken this long for any information to be shared with the public?” McGee said.
Protesters Wednesday went inside the government complex with a revised version of the letter to deliver to Carter’s office. Those who did not have a physical copy of the letter to hand over to Carter’s office were turned away by security.
Kwabena Rasuli, also with BLM — Gary, said the trial for the officers involved in the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died after police held him prone with a knee to his neck for more than nine minutes, is already underway. The officers were identified shortly after the incident and their status was made public.
“For (Lake County) to take this long to deal with this gives police more impunity,” Rasuli said.
The parents of Jamal Williams, of Lansing, Illinois, who was shot and killed June 6 by a security guard at Community Hospital in Munster, spoke out at the event for the need for transparency from police not only in Gary but in every community. Williams’ mother, the Rev. Patrice Patterson-Davis, and his stepfather, Dwayne Davis, called for accountability.
“We demand justice and accountability,” she said.