2 teens charged in slaying of a retired Gary firefighter

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — Two teenage boys have made their first court appearances after being charged in the slaying of a retired Gary firefighter who was a member of the high school basketball team that won the 1968 state title.

The boys, ages 15 and 16, are charged as adults in last June’s killing of 70-year-old Wallace “Wally” Broadnax outside a Gary gas station.

The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that a Lake County magistrate entered not guilty pleas on behalf of each boy Tuesday during their initial hearings.

Broadnax was slain during an attempted robbery. He was a retired Gary firefighter and had also been on Roosevelt High School’s 1968 state championship basketball team.