A Merrillville man faces charges after he shot at a woman in his home.
Brian Campbell, Jr., 25, of Merrillville, was charged Nov. 5 with multiple felonies including attempted murder.
He is in custody, held without bail.
Merrillville Police responded around 7 p.m. Nov. 2 to the 600 block of W. 78th Avenue for a shots fired call with a “barricaded” subject.
The woman ran a few blocks north to the 7600 block of Jackson Street where she met officers with her dog. She said Campbell pistol whipped and fired a gun at her. She had scratches and bruises on her head, with a bloody lip.
They had broken up, but she occasionally stayed with him when he threatened to kill himself, according to the affidavit.
Around that time, Campbell appeared to be talking to a man in the driveway on W. 78th Avenue, then went inside. A police tactical team arrived. After they got a search warrant, Campbell wasn’t inside.
The woman said she went to Campbell’s to tell him she was pregnant. He called her expletives, choked, then punched her in the face and hit her with a gun.
“I’m going to kill you,” he said.
Over 30-45 minutes, Campbell allegedly pointed the gun at her 10-15 times. He pointed at her and when she moved, he shot the sofa.
“If you leave or call the cops, I will kill you and kill myself,” he said.
He told her to take a shower. Afterwards, she went to grab her dog and climbed out the basement window. The woman said he had several guns.
Campbell called a detective on Nov. 3, saying she harassed him, because he slept with her friends and she had a “vendetta.” He wanted to avoid the cops, because he had a court date on Nov. 8 and would get “locked up.”
Campbell claimed they were tussling, she had the gun and “let it off.” He ran around the room, then out of the house, scared he would die. Police felt he was lying.
He was arrested Nov. 4 when he returned, then left his house.
In a police interview, Campbell claimed he was on a group video chat when the woman showed a pregnancy test, then came over 20-30 minutes later.
At one point, he dropped his phone and she refused to help him look, since she was angry over another woman. She started hitting Campbell, he said. While he was looking under a sofa, she found his gun and pointed it at him, he claimed. There was a struggle and she pulled the trigger.
When he went outside, she grabbed the dog and left, he said.
He went to an abandoned home on the block and watched as emergency responders showed up. He slept inside the house for 30 minutes, then walked to a fast food restaurant where he got a ride to a relative’s Chicago house.
When asked how a bullet casing ended up near a far wall, Campbell claimed he picked it up and moved it. When investigators asked whose DNA they would find when they swabbed the trigger, Campbell backtracked and said he didn’t know.
He is also charged with aggravated battery, criminal confinement, battery, strangulation, and criminal recklessness.