Dante Figueroa was 17 when he was killed in the early hours of September 17, 2019, in a home on Lindberg Avenue in Hammond, Indiana. Emergency responders found him in a bedroom about 12:30 a.m. with a single, fatal gunshot wound to the head; he was pronounced dead at 1:32 a.m., and the Lake County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide.

Investigators say a gathering of several teenagers at the house turned tragic when what was described as horseplay with a 9mm Taurus handgun ended in the shooting. Court documents state the suspect and Figueroa knew each other; 18-year-old James Edwin Lasenby of Gary, Indiana, was identified, arrested and charged with reckless homicide. According to Lasenby’s account, Figueroa pointed the gun at him in a mock stick-up, he believed it was unloaded, swung the gun and it discharged.

Did anyone at the gathering or in the neighborhood see what happened or know more about that evening?