Police are searching for a northwest Indiana man who was charged with attacking two people with a machete early Saturday outside a tavern in Hammond.

Just before 2 a.m., officers responded to Flat Rock Tavern in the 6700 block of Calumet Avenue for a report of someone who was attacked, according to a statement from Hammond police.

A 26-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man told officers they were standing outside of the tavern when a man approached them and asked a question, police said. The man then pulled out a machete and began to attack both victims before running away.

Officers tracked the man to a nearby home through his footprints in the fresh snow that had fallen, police said. Investigators then interviewed witnesses and identified the suspect as 25-year-old Ryan Christian Turner.

Turner was described as a 6-foot-1, 175-pound black man, police said. He is not in custody, and police are actively searching for him.

Turner was charged with 5 counts of felony battery, police said.



Anyone with information should contact Detective Sergeant Mike Nemeck at (219) 852-2977 or Detective Sergeant Marc Ferry at (219) 852-2991.