Two men identified after East Chicago bar shooting hits homes and cars

Two men were killed outside OJ's Game Over Bar in East Chicago, Indiana, and the gunfire reached well beyond the men found on the ground. Bullets struck nearby homes and parked vehicles, leaving damaged windows, shattered vehicle glass and holes in tires on the surrounding residential block. ^{2 3}

The men were Marc Vidaurri and Michael Rodriguez, both East Chicago residents, their families told CBS Chicago. Rodriguez was 20. Vidaurri's family identified him as 35; ABC7 Chicago's November 1 report, citing police, described the older victim as 36. The family identifications replace the initial account in which police withheld the men's names while relatives were notified, but the difference over Vidaurri's age remains unresolved. ^{2 3}

The names give the losses a clearer identity. They do not yet come with a public explanation of who fired or why. Police initially believed an additional shooter had escaped, according to CBS Chicago. That account does not establish whether another shooter has been identified or arrested as of November 4. ¹

Police were called at approximately 1:48 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026, after the ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system registered shots in the 700 block of West 151st Street. The system detected 17 rounds, then another 15 seconds later at the same location: 32 detected rounds in all. The date and dispatch account were reported by CBS Chicago and Region News Source. ^{2 5}

That sequence conveys the volume of gunfire, not the number of people firing. Nor is it a count of bullets that struck the victims or surrounding property. The 1:48 a.m. time is the reported alert and dispatch time; it is not a separately established officer-arrival time or time of death.

Officers found both men lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. One was pronounced dead at the scene. The other was taken to Powers Health St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago, where he died. The available police account does not identify which man died at the scene and which died at the hospital. ²

Police also said a semiautomatic handgun lay beside each man's body, and investigators recovered both weapons. Those discoveries are important evidence, but they are not, on their own, an explanation. They do not establish who used the guns, who fired first or how the shooting began. There is no verified basis in the reported findings to label either man the aggressor or describe the deaths as a proven exchange of gunfire between them. ^{2 3}

Audrey DeAvila, who lives behind the bar, told ABC7 Chicago that she heard the shots and went outside before police arrived. She found a wounded man and joined his girlfriend in trying to save him. Her account puts neighbors at the center of the immediate response—not just as witnesses to damage, but as people trying to keep someone alive. ³

DeAvila's account describes an urgent effort to help. It does not establish which named victim she assisted or whether those efforts could have changed the outcome. ABC7 reported bullet holes in the windows of homes and vehicles. In CBS Chicago's reporting, Lisette Guillen described shattered vehicle glass and bullet-punctured tires. The damage shows how far the danger spread without establishing an additional injury toll. ^{3 2}

East Chicago Police Chief Jose Rivera made the residential setting central to his appeal for witnesses. “No respect was given. That's a residential area. Several vehicles were hit, several homes. And we know somebody saw something,” he told CBS Chicago. He pointed to people who had been inside the bar or were leaving it and said officers responded within seconds. A separately documented arrival timestamp is not available. ²

The investigative task is to turn those witness accounts and physical evidence into a sequence of actions. A gun beside a body, a burst recorded by a detection system and a damaged window each establish something different. None alone supplies the missing account of how two men came to be fatally wounded.

East Chicago police are investigating with assistance identified in the initial reporting from the Lake County Homicide Task Force, the sheriff's crime-scene investigators and the county coroner's office. ABC7's November 1 account reported no arrests and an unclear motive. CBS subsequently reported police's belief that another shooter was on the run. Those are dated investigative accounts, not confirmation of the current arrest status. ^{2 3 1}

No verified later case update establishes a named additional shooter, a motive or a final disposition. Rivera had announced an update for 3:30 p.m. on November 1, but its occurrence and outcome have not been established. That announced time is now past, not an upcoming briefing. ³

CBS also reported that the bar had been the subject of other police investigations, several still open. No verified connection between those cases and the killings has been identified. That history cannot stand in for evidence about what happened to Vidaurri and Rodriguez. ²

The concrete request to the neighborhood is to review home surveillance footage from the area and share anything that could help reconstruct the shooting. Police are seeking information from witnesses as well. The published East Chicago Police Department tip-line number is 219-391-8500. ^{3 2}