Lieutenant George Yaros

Lieutenant Yaros was responding to a bank robbery at the Gary National Bank when he was shot and killed.

Lieutenant Yaros was shot by one of the three suspects when he arrived at the scene of the robbery. The same suspect shot Lieutenant Yaros at close range as they fled to their getaway car. The suspect's car crashed during a high-speed shootout with police and the shooter fled on foot. The shooter was found walking nearby with the help of bystanders and was apprehended.

The jury only recommended death for the shooter after all three suspects were convicted of the Lieutenant's murder the other two suspects were sentenced to 60 years in prison. On January 22, 2008 one of those two offenders was denied parole.

The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the shooter's conviction but overturned the death sentence in 1993. He was once again sentenced to death on the recommendation of the jury in 1996, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned that death sentence in 2002. The State's petition for a rehearing was granted in November 2007, it held the offender should be resentenced under a post-2002 death penalty statute, but without the availability of life without parole. He was released on February 6, 2017 after having his sentence reduced for good behavior while in prison.

Lieutenant Yaros was due to retire in six months to work at the same bank where he was killed. He was a paratrooper for the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army during World War II and was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. Captured and taken prisoner by the Germans he escaped from the POW camp.