Authorities have arrested a teenage boy suspected of a homicide and two sexual assaults in the last month in Hammond.
DNA recovered from the sexual assault victims matches the suspect, a 15-year-old boy who is in custody, according to Hammond police. Charges were pending as of Monday morning with the Lake County juvenile prosecutor’s office.
The victims, a 14-year-old girl and a 25-year-old woman, were outside walking when they were approached by a boy about 15 or 16, who forced them into an ally and sexually assaulted them, police said.
The incidents happened about noon July 26 in the 6700 block of Grand Avenue; and about midnight Aug. 8 in the 7400 block of Arkansas Avenue.
The teen is also suspected of the stabbing death of a 25-year-old woman last week in Hammond.
At 6:04 a.m. on Aug. 22, Lucia Gonzalez was found fatally stabbed in her kitchen in the 7500 block of Alexander Avenue, authorities said. Children who were in the home at the time were “safe and unharmed.”
“Today, our streets are safe from this violent individual,” police said in a statement.
