Starke County Prosecutor Nichoals Bourff does not anticipate filing charges against the Knox man police say stole two cars in Starke County and led them on a high-speed chase through four northwest Indiana counties until at least tomorrow. Gary Chavez, 57, of Knox is still in critical condition at Christ Advocate Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill. He’s been there since Friday night after shooting himself in an apparent attempt to avoid arrest by police in Crown Point. They used stop sticks to flatten the tires on the truck Chavez was driving.
Bourff tells WKVI News he’s waiting for preliminary autopsy results on his estranged wife, Kimberly Chavez, 50, of Portage before filing charges. Deputies from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department found her dead at his home in California Township Friday after the pursuit ended. Starke County Coroner Kris Rannells calls her death an “apparent homicide” but cannot elaborate until the autopsy is complete. It is taking place today in Fort Wayne.
Chavez allegedly stole a car at gunpoint from the parking lot at Mark Bailey’s Discount Center at 3:41 p.m. Friday. He stole a second vehicle in English Lake, according to investigators from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department, and took a pickup truck in Hebron from two men who stopped to see if he was having car trouble. That’s what he was driving when the pursuit ended.
