No Answers in Drive-By Shooting Death of 3-Year-Old Boy

Update: Cleveland.com has a good interview with the man, who they say is a former gang member, who was on the street last night and believes he was the target of the shootings. It meshes with what we were told this afternoon, that the man (identified only as RJ) was the target of a shooting at Club 216 back on August 30. He says he believes the same folks came shooting at him last night, instead killing Major Howard, and that he's speaking out because he thinks he'll be dead soon anyway.

"This gangbanging needs to stop," he told Cleveland.com. "You don't do it where kids are going to be at. That's coward s—-." And, "That baby died for no reason. I don't want to die for no reason too. I'm going to do something right before I leave."

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A 3-year-old boy named Major Howard was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday night on East 113th Street in Cleveland. A 24-year-old woman was also shot; her condition is not yet known.

One man sitting on his porch today described hearing "30 or so" rapid-fire gunshots outside his home last night. Howard, sitting in a parked car down the street, was struck once in his chest. 

Neighbors gathered at the site of the shooting Wednesday afternoon, where a small memorial of balloons and stuffed animals was growing at the base of a telephone pole. Children watched men race down the street on a motorcycle. 

"It's just sad," one woman told Scene. She said she didn't live on East 113th, but arrived this afternoon to contribute to the memorial.  "Your kids can't even be out here playing. It's bad enough you're all trying to kill each other, but now you're killing these innocent kids that have nothing to do with what you got going on. It's sad."

Conversation on East 113th today turned inevitably toward the 5-year-old boy shot Sept. 4 on a side street near East 55th. So far in 2015, there have been 86 homicides in Cleveland. 

No suspects have been identified as of Wednesday afternoon. Two sources told Scene that the shooters' car had been found "torched" on a nearby street.