Teens arrested in killing of boy, 12
FATAL SHOOTING
CLEVELAND — Two teenagers have been arrested in a shooting that killed a 12-year-old and wounded five other boys, a crime that has put a spotlight on a surge of youth violence in Cleveland.
U.S. Marshals and police arrested a 15-year-old suspect Tuesday morning at his mother’s house while another 15-year-old who was taken into custody the day before appeared in court.
Both have been charged with aggravated murder and attempted murder. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley wants the pair tried as adults, but a juvenile judge will make that decision.
“It’s clear to everybody within this community that we have an epidemic of youth violence,” O’Malley said. “We have a problem that needs to be solved.”
The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles charged with crimes.
Police said the pair fired at a group of teenagers standing outside a liquor store Friday, wounding five who are between 14 and 16 years old. One of the boys was shot in the head.
Abdel Bashiti, 12 of Parma, who was nearby inside his family’s beauty supply store, had stepped outside with his father and was shot and killed.
He had tagged along with his father to the store for a Black Friday sale, said Razan Bashiti, Abdel’s aunt.
“He was a very sweet kid, he had so much potential,” she said Tuesday. “Just gone too soon, you know? It breaks our hearts.”
Born and raised in Cleveland, Abdel was a “diehard” fan of the city’s sport teams and earned straight A’s in his seventhgrade class, his aunt said.
Mayor Frank Jackson said at a news conference Monday announcing the first arrest in the shooting that it’s too easy for teenagers to get a gun and that putting them “in the hands of immature people lead to these kinds of outcomes.”
TOLEDO — An autopsy shows a central Ohio woman arrested at a Toledo casino and later found unresponsive in jail died from complications of hanging.
The coroner’s office in Toledo released the findings Tuesday in the death of Lisa McCray, 43, of Hilliard.
Police say McCray was highly intoxicated at Hollywood Casino Toledo on Thursday where she arrested on a disorderly conduct charge.
A sheriff’s official said McCray was at the jail less than four hours and had been checked on 30 minutes before she was found unresponsive in a holding cell early Friday.