A 24-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a Gary grandfather who was shot and killed Wednesday night walking his dog, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Monday.
Tyree Laron Gaines, of Gary, was arrested Friday and charged with one count of murder in connection with the fatal shooting of Cornelius Olive, 79, of the 3200 block of West 21st Place, according to court records.
In a statement to police, Gaines admitted to killing Olive. He told police he didn’t remember the killing, but was told by his mother that he shot someone in the face, the probable cause affidavit stated.
Gaines told police “he was not going to make our jobs hard,” when police asked if he was forced to make a statement, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Gaines said he has mental health issues and sometimes blacks out, records stated, and he said he stopped taking his injectable medication because it hurt.
Gaines’ brother, Gage Gaines, told police at the scene he believed his brother was involved in the homicide, the affidavit stated.
On the night of the killing, Gaines was involved in an altercation, recorded on video, with his brother who also lives on West 21st Place.
Gage Gaines told police he thought Tyree was going to shoot him as they began fighting over a gun. He and his girlfriend fled their home after the fight and they told police they saw a man lying in the street.
Before that altercation, Tyree Gaines told police he remembered coming across someone else and this person “was in his business,” the affidavit stated, and Gaines said he knew he “turned up” the person but he didn’t know what he did.
Gaines told police he recalled coming into contact with an older man he thought wore a blue shirt, according to court records.
Gaines said he remembered the man began speaking to him first and then he said he blacked out and didn’t remember anything until he recalled struggling with his brother minutes later, the affidavit stated. Gaines told police his gun was a Taurus 9mm, court records stated, and the ammunition collected at the crime scene included two 9mm casings.
In the affidavit, police said they also confiscated clothing, including a burgundy Nike hoodie similar to the one witnesses said Gaines wore the night of the killing, from an abandoned house on Matthews Place.
Gaines’ mother told police she made her son leave her house when he came home with a gun, according to court records, and she said he lived on the streets.
Police are also seeking video doorbell recordings from neighbors along the street.
On Friday, Gary Mayor Jerome Prince said someone connected to the killing began sending threatening emails to Gary City Hall and to the Merrillville Town Hall. Merrillville officials closed the town hall in response. No link between Gaines and the emails was mentioned in the probable cause affidavit.
Olive’s family members described him as a friendly neighbor who helped mow lawns for other neighbors and took others’ trash cans in from the street.
The 1964 Gary Roosevelt graduate was retired from the Blaw-Knox Foundry and lived with his daughter while they cared for his wife.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
