Canton shootings kill sleeping toddler, 2 men

CANTON — A toddler was shot to death as he slept alongside his twin brother, becoming the third person killed in the city during a six-hour wave of gun violence that began Tuesday night and stretched into Wednesday morning.

Nineteen-month-old Ace Lucas lay sleeping on a living room sofa alongside his twin, Arcel Lucas, at 2:28 a.m. Wednesday when shots rang out at their home in the 1600 block of Clarendon Avenue SW.

Neighbors said they had heard a car rev its engine loudly and then heard gunfire.

A woman who called 911 reported that someone had fired at least seven shots into her home and she could be heard telling an emergency dispatcher that a baby had been shot in the rear.

A child can be heard crying inconsolably in the background until, not long into the conversation, a man in the background discovered that both babies had been shot and that one was not breathing. He began screaming as the woman pleaded with the dispatcher to hurry.

Both children were taken to the hospital, where Ace Lucas died as a result of his injuries. Arcel Lucas’ injuries were not life-threatening.

Neighbors, who asked not to be identified by name because they feared for their safety, said several children stay at the house and the toddlers were frequently playing in the yard and on their porch. On Wednesday morning, the children’s toys lay on the sidewalk in front of the house and more toys lay on the side deck.

“They’re cute little guys. This is just pitiful,” one neighbor said.

Canton Police Chief Jack Angelo said authorities “really don’t have a lot of leads, but we’re out following up on what we have.”

In all, four men and two toddlers were shot in three separate incidents. Angelo could not say whether the incidents were related nor whether gunfire was exchanged.

Police were first called about a shooting at 8:25 p.m. Tuesday at a gray, 2½-story wood-frame home in the 1400 block of Louisiana Avenue NW.

Police found a man dead in the street and another man who had made his way into the house. Police also found a gun, the chief said.

Ronald Pleasant, 31, was dead, Angelo said, and a 21-year-old man was taken by private vehicle to a hospital. The younger man had injuries described as not life-threatening.

Officers were still investigating at the Louisiana house when a call came in that two other men had been shot across the city.

Brandon Bushe, 20, lay in the doorway of an apartment in the Stark Metro Housing Authority-owned complex on Pulley Place SE. Another 20-year-old man was shot nearby and, police say, his injuries were not life-threatening.

Canton firefighters took both young men to the hospital. Bushe was pronounced dead a short time later.

On Wednesday, Kayla Pellerin sat on her back porch, looking across the street to where Bushe had tried to get into a stranger’s apartment. Pellerin said blood stains on her came from Bushe, a friend’s younger brother.

Bushe had been shot, and Pellerin said she held him as he died.

“Everybody tried to help him, everybody tried to save him . ... I was holding him. Me and my friend. We told him an ambulance was coming. He kept saying, ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die,’ and we just kept telling him, ‘No, you’re going to make it.’

“He was a kid. He was just a kid. He wasn’t in no trouble. It’s not like he was out here a problem to society. He was just a kid.”