The Indiana State Police is seeking the motorist who shot and seriously injured another driver on Thursday morning on an I-80 on-ramp in Gary.

According to police, at 10:39 a.m. Tyron Hopkins, 44, of Gary, was on the ramp from southbound Grant Street to eastbound I-80 when a second vehicle pulled alongside his 1995 Ford Escort. The driver of the second—and unidentified—vehicle, then shot Hopkins with a firearm.

Hopkins was transported to Northlake Methodist Hospital in Gary with life-threatening injuries.

Evidence was recovered at the scene and investigators are seeking a person of interest, police said.

Anyone with information on the incident is urged to contact Det. Brian Kubiak at (219) 696-6242.

At 9:03 p.m. Aug. 23—exactly three weeks earlier—a young woman was westbound in the left lane of I-80, west of Grant Street, when a dark-colored pickup truck driven by an older white male began tailgating her, for roughly a mile. The man then shifted into the left-center lane and attempted to force the woman into the concrete median wall, police said. Next he pulled up onto her driver’s side, traveling along the shoulder, prompting the woman to shift into the left-center lane herself.

But the man tracked her movement, took a position in the left lane, and again tried to push the woman right.

Then he returned to his position on the passenger’s side of the woman’s vehicle and waved a silver handgun in the air. The woman heard a “bang” and observed a fresh hole in her passenger’s side door.

The woman was not struck by the bullet but did sustain an injury when a plastic shard from her car door hit her hand, police said.

At that point the shooter promptly crossed all lanes of westbound traffic and exited onto Cline Ave.

The suspect had white hair and was wearing a baseball cap. He is believed to have been armed with a small-caliber weapon. A bullet was recovered from the woman’s vehicle.

The woman refused medical attention at the scene.

Posted 9/14/2012