Man with mental illness sentenced after shooting BBs from Gary abandoned home

A former Illinois man suffering from mental illness was sentenced Thursday in three criminal cases after admitting he shot at various people with a BB gun from a Gary abandoned home where he lived.

Jharqwan Toliver, 23, got three years in the Indiana Department of Correction. With his time already spent in jail, he has about two months left before his release. He could not offer solid plans in court for where he would live after prison.

His lawyer Roseann Ivanovich told Judge Salvador Vasquez that her client had a “rough start in life” and “didn’t attend” much school. He had clear “intellectual limitations” and would likely have a “rough life ahead.”

Deputy Prosecutor Milana Petersen noted he didn’t really have a criminal history. But one woman, who was shot with a BB, had worsening health issues, including more seizures, vision issues, PTSD and nightmares.

“I want you to go to jail for what you did to me,” the woman said in a letter read in court.

Toliver was deemed not competent to aid in his legal defense last summer, but a followup evaluation by the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction concluded he was competent, court filings show.

Ivanovich said in court that Toliver understood enough to know what was happening with his case. His mom or aunt, who were both in court, would have to help him get services or find a place to live.

Vasquez asked Toliver multiple times to get at why he started shooting at people.

I couldn’t say, Toliver appeared to say at one point.

“This can never happen again,” the judge told him. “You hurt people. You hurt someone.”

Vasquez added he narrowly stopped from rejecting the plea deal.

“I take it serious,” Toliver said.

He had originally faced more than a dozen felonies, including battery and criminal confinement.

Court records allege Toliver shot at police officers, medics, and two other victims from the second floor over a five-month period in 2022.

Toliver’s mother, who was distraught and unaware of what had allegedly happened, told investigators he was homeless, living with a relative who allegedly stole his Social Security checks, which left him to survive in an abandoned house, according to the affidavit.

Her son suffered from mental illness and had been off his medication, according to court documents. None of the victims were seriously injured. One woman, shot in the head, was taken to Methodist for treatment, before she was released.

Investigators allege he targeted various folks from the abandoned Gary house where he ended up living — 828 W. 25th Avenue — on at least three different dates — Aug. 20, Sept. 1 and Dec. 11, 2022.

During the last incident on Dec. 11, a man told police he was setting an alarm next door at Triumph the Church, 834 W. 25th Ave., that afternoon when he noticed the rear window on his 2023 Lexus had been blown out, charges state.

As he got inside to drive off, he was shot in the back of the neck, according to the affidavit. He flagged down officers responding nearby.

When police arrived at 3:14 p.m., one officer realized he heard “muffled” gunshots and believed their police car was also being shot at with BBs. One officer remembered Toliver had been arrested for shooting BBs from the house months earlier, where an AR-style BB gun had been found.

This time, cops searched the abandoned home again. They found signs someone was living there — with human feces on the second floor near a bunch of new clothes from Dick’s Sporting Goods, according to the affidavit. They also found a pillow and blanket.

They found several air cartridges and BB copper pellets, charges allege. Police also found Tolliver’s green backpack hanging from the house that contained other BB supplies. An officer spotted Toliver walking from the abandoned house with a baseball bat.

Police ordered him to drop the bat and he was arrested.

Around 9 p.m. Sept. 1, medics reported their ambulance had been shot up and dented with BBs while they were driving to a service call.

On Aug. 20, a woman told police she was parked near 25th Avenue and Tyler Street when she “felt pressure” as she was shot in the face, charges allege. Her relative took her down the street to Gary Fire Station 4. She was “alert” and talking, before she was transported to the hospital.

During one arrest, Toliver said his name was “Daekwon Collins.” Police found his real identity via an FBI fingerprint search, the affidavit states. He had no past criminal history or Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles file. He told officers he’d been “shooting at squirrels.”

Toliver’s mother later told investigators he was bipolar, schizophrenic and was not taking his medication. Both were from Illinois.

She had been giving him $1,000 per month until recently when she was forced to leave him with a relative in Gary, who ended up cashing his Social Security checks, she alleged.

She talked to her son every day, but had “no idea” he was in trouble with the law, she said.

mcolias@post-trib.com