Hammond man gets four years for firing gun during bar fight

A Hammond man was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for shooting a gun during a Aug. 26, 2019, bar fight at the former Flick’s Tap in Hammond.

Xavier Solis, 28, pleaded guilty Sept. 28 to criminal recklessness for firing multiple shots at the victim, which missed him. He faced up to four years under the plea deal.

His father Javier Solis said he himself lost two sons, Javier and Elijah, shot dead in 2008 and 2020. He asked for leniency.

Defense lawyer John Cantrell said Xavier “accepted responsibility.”

It was a “crazy fight” with shots fired and pool balls thrown in an emptied dive bar after a Bears game. It started because a “girl was dancing with some other guy” and a man she knew “got mad,” he said.

He asked for one year in jail and two more on probation.

Deputy Prosecutor Jacquelyn Altpeter asked for four years in prison, noting Solis had other cases, including a 2018 intimidation case being settled with the plea. Cantrell said Solis was facing two years in prison for a probation violation in a federal gun case.

Judge Salvador Vasquez sentenced him to four years in prison, saying past attempts to help him stay out of trouble were a “total failure.”

Court records show he is also facing a recent armed robbery charge.

The victim was at the bar when he spotted the girlfriend of his friend’s brother, according to court documents.

After making a comment to her about “talking to other guys,” court documents state, he was confronted by a Hispanic man with a ponytail, identified by multiple witnesses as Michael Anthony Rivera.

A fistfight broke out. Moments later, in the early hours of Aug. 26, 2019, the man was shot, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Co-defendants Rivera, Daquan Birdsong, Solis, and Jonathon Berkley were each charged originally with attempted murder, aggravated battery, battery with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in serious bodily injury.

Rivera pleaded guilty to battery resulting in bodily injury. He was sentenced to one year of probation in May 2021. Birdsong was sentenced to six years in April 2021 in prison after he pleaded guilty to criminal recklessness.

Berkley’s next hearing is Friday.