Family deals with second shooting death in 9 years

For the second CLEVELAND — time in less than nine years, a Cleveland mother is grieving a son shot to death.

Jermaine G. Hawthorne, 30, died Saturday after someone shot him several times in the city’s Glenville neighborhood. Homicide detectives are working to identify a suspect in the deadly shooting, which occurred just after 10 p.m. as Hawthorne sat in the driver’s seat of a white Chevrolet Cavalier.

His death came eightand-a-half years after his brother LaSalle Hawthorne, 18, was shot to death during an armed robbery in the city’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood. A Cleveland man was later sentenced to life in prison for the killing.

Jermaine and LaSalle Hawthorne were the two youngest of 11 siblings raised in Cleveland, their mother Addie Hawthorne said.

“When someone calls you in the morning and tells you your child got shot, it’s hard to comprehend,” she said Thursday. “And this was like déja vu.”

Jermaine Hawthorne was the father of two daughters, ages 9 and 3, and a 2-yearold son.

His older brother, Lewis Hawthorne, said it’s difficult for their family to wrap their heads around another death attributed to gun violence.

“Almost 10 years later, we lose another brother,” he said. “It’s just strange that something like this can happen to the same family.”

Jermaine liked to “liked to hang out with the wrong crowd” in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood, his brother said. Family members tried to dissuade Jermaine from the lifestyle that led to several convictions for crimes including breaking and entering, theft and drug-related offenses.

Both Addie and Lewis Hawthorne defended Jermaine’s character, saying he was not a violent person.

“We were just used to being in the inner-city,” Lewis Hawthorne said. “The environment is a big part of someone’s lifestyle.”

Jermaine had been trying to turn his life around for his children, his mother said. In recent years he got jobs at a Golden Corral restaurant and a car wash.

“He started looking at things differently,” Addie Hawthorne said. “He was a father, so he got a job. He was trying to do what’s right.”

Homicide detectives have not provided a possible motive for Jermaine’s killing, but his brother said the motive is irrelevant.

“There’s no justification for anybody to get murdered,” Lewis Hawthorne said.

Investigators canvassed for cameras and video footage in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, and are working with the police department’s video specialist, Cleveland police Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said.

Family members are hopeful detectives will make progress in the investigation.