Mom drove car as 15-year-old son shot mentally disabled man

[azathoth777]

GARY, Ind. (AP) — A 15-year-old's mother was driving the car from which the boy fired the shots that killed a mentally disabled man, police said.

The woman slowed the car as she drove past the house Wednesday afternoon and her son shot Jermaine Martin, 27, with an SKS semiautomatic rifle, police said. Martin was shot in the back and collapsed face down on his lawn.

Investigators did not immediately give a motive for the shooting or release the identities of those arrested.

Police officers found the car described by witnesses a short time after the shooting and the woman, her son and 16-year-old boy who was also in the car were arrested at the scene. City police detectives continued several hours after the shooting to question witnesses and the three people arrested, the Post-Tribune of Merrillville reported.

A neighbor said Martin, known as "Bobo," rarely strayed far from his front yard and was generous with neighborhood children.

"Bobo never hurt anyone in his life. When the ice cream truck came, he bought for everyone," Crystal Boykin said.

Martin was often harassed by others, she said.

"We've called police about him, I don't know how many times, because the guys were always trying to rob him," Boykin said. "The police never came."