Mom survives crash — only to be gunned down in car

Former USMarine charged with murder after vehicle accident near Cleveland

Deborah Pearl was driving to work on a recent Saturday morning through the streets of Solon, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb so serene that Money magazine last year named it one of the top 10 places to live in the United States.

It was just after 7 a.m. when the 53-year-old mother of three cruised throughan intersectionand a man in a sport utility vehicle ran a red light, slamming into the driver’s side of Pearl’s Ford Taurus, police reports would later say.

The intensity of the crash caused Pearl’s car to skid across the intersection and the SUV to roll several times until it came to a rest flipped upside down, police reports said.

Both drivers survived; somehow, the man in the SUVwas able towalk out of his overturned vehicle.

And that is where tragedy begins.

According to a woman who witnessed the accident, the man emerged from his Jeep carrying a rifle, Cleveland.com reported.

Police and other officials would later identify the man as a former U.S. Marine, one who had been deployed to Iraq twice.

The female witness, who gave a written statement to the police, told Cleveland.com what happened was so traumatizing that she did not want to be named.

Rifle in hand, the driver of the SUV walked toward Pearl and — as she held her hands up — shot her several times, the woman told the news site.

“I can’t get her screams out of my head,” she told the site.

Several people in the area appeared to have witnessed the accident. Another woman, JamirraBrabson, heard four shots, then a woman scream, before three more rounds of at least three shots, the site reported.

“Then it was just Brabson told site.

At 7:21 a.m., an area resident called 911, breathless and distraught, to report the accident and the shooting.

“There’s a man walking around with an AK-47, shooting all over the place! Corner of Richmond and Solon,” the woman said, according to a recording of a 911 call provided by ChagrinValley Dispatch. “. . . Or a large rifle like that, yes. Please hurry!”

The woman told the dispatcher the man was pacing up and down the road with his rifle, at some point coming up to her driveway. Sounding close to tears, she begged the dispatcher to send help quickly.

Solon police said they found Pearl lying in the road with several gunshot wounds and took her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead about 8:18 a.m.

The driver of the SUV, 29-year-old Matthew Ryan Desha, was taken into custody. Police said they found a Stag Arms AR-15 rifle in his possession.

Amilitary spokeswoman confirmed to TheWashington Post that Desha served in the U.S. Marine Corps the silence,” the from2004to 2008, andwas deployed to Iraq twice during that time.

According to his military personnel file, Desha achieved the rank of private and served as a mortarman.

“Words can’t explain what we’re going through,” Pearl’s son Derryo Pearl told Cleveland.com. “This is the roughest patch a human being can go through. I’ve gone through tough times before, but it wasn’t like this.”

Derryo Pearl told the news site that his mother wasonherwaytowork that morning at the South East Harley-Davidson dealership, less than 20 miles away from her home in Twinsburg, Ohio.

Her son told the site he credited his mother with raising her three childrento become good parents of their own.

“She disciplined uswhen she needed to discipline us,” Derryo Pearl told the site. “She made us go to school every day. She worked hard and taught us that was the only way to succeed in life.”

Reached by phone, Robert Murray and Timothy Young, who identified themselves as Pearl’s husband and another son, said they did not want to talk aboutwhat happened.

Desha has been charged with murder and was arraigned last week via video appearance in BedfordMunicipal Court.

Desha’s neighbor Kathleen Salvatore told WEWS News that the man struggled after his time in the Marines.

“He was also the kind of person that if someone was trying to mess with him, like a guypicking a fight with him, you’re going to get pummeled,” Salvatore told the station.

More than a dozen of Pearl’s relatives and family friends attended the arraignment, according to Clevelandarea media reports.

Bernita Ashford, one of Pearl’s relatives, could barely speak through her sobs as she talked to reporters Monday about the death of the family memberthey all called “Little Deb.”

“I’m angry because he did not have to kill her. It was no reason to kill her,” she said, Cleveland 19News reported.

“And shoot an innocent woman? Innocent! Defenseless! She survived the crash, and you murdered her! Youmurdered her! You murdered Little Deb! You took her away fromus.”

The pain, Ashford told the station, was “like a stab in the heart. A stab in the family’s heart.”

Pearl worked six days a week at the OriginalHarley Diner inside the dealership, where she often played gospel music, joked and danced as she cooked breakfast on the grill, her co-workers told WEWS News.

Renee Basler, an assistant manager there, told the station she knew something was wrong on Saturday morning when Pearl was late forwork.

“Debbie was like clockwork,” she told the station through tears. “I’m going to missmy friend.”