Girlfriend of road rage victim pleads for end to violence

For such a young man, Jorge Roman was the best father imaginable, his girlfriend said.

Roman, 18, made sure his 6month-old daughter had everything she ever needed, said Arianah Cruz during a press conference Friday evening at the Hammond Police Station. The last she spoke to Roman, he and a friend were likely heading to another friend’s house around 8 p.m. and were expected back for a family party later in the evening July 4, she said.

But the two never made it. They were shot at during what police are calling a road rage incident in which Roman, of East Chicago, was killed.

Crushed with emotion, Cruz, who’s also 18, said Roman was a loving son, brother, boyfriend and father who wouldn’t wish her pain on anyone, even the people responsible for his death.

“My boyfriend was murdered. Murdered,” Cruz said, sobbing. “He’s gone and he’s never coming back.

“How am I going to tell my daughter that her father was killed for nothing?”

Cruz said Roman wasn’t involved in gang activity and that he and his friend were just out having fun when it happened.

“He did nothing wrong. They were just having a good time,” she said. “It needs to stop — the guns, the violence. I don’t wish this upon anyone, not even the people who took his life.”

Hammond Police spokesman Lt. Steve Kellogg reiterated that people who think they’re involved in a dangerous situation while driving need to call the 911 immediately and to not engage to the best of their ability.

“(Situations like this) never have to happen; you never know who has a gun,” Kellogg said.

Witnesses told police that two cars were driving next to each other heading north on Calumet Avenue when they turned left onto 165th Street, Kellogg said earlier Friday. A person in one of vehicles shot into the car in which Roman and his friend were driving, causing them to veer off 165th and into a residence, Kellogg said.

The vehicle with the shooter, which Kellogg said is small- to mid-size white car — possibly a Kia — with several people in it then sped off heading westbound on 165th into Illinois, Kellogg said.

Roman’s friend was taken to Franciscan Health Hammond for treatment, Kellogg said. He is cooperating with police, he said.

The home’s residents weren’t injured in the crash, Kellogg added.

Kellogg said the city has 70 traffic cameras within its boundaries, and the area in which the incident occurred likely has footage. Anyone with other information may contact Hammond Capt. Zeke Hinojosa at 219-8522971 or Sgt. Scott Jajowka at 219-852-2989.