The Cleveland Division of Police has not yet identified any leads in this case. “We are getting tips in, and our officers are following up,” Chief Calvin Williams said. “But we need more. Our community needs to step forward.”
There were four people riding in a car on East 143rd Street yesterday, Williams said, and Wakefield was shot in her chest. Williams said the presumed target(s) of the gunfire remain unknown.
Williams updated the city on several additional shootings that contributed to September being Cleveland’s most violent month of 2015 yet:
– Two suspects have been arrested and indicted in the shooting death of 5-year-old Ramon Burnett.
– An arrest warrant remains on the books for 22-year-old Donnell “Nell” Lindsey, who is still at large and is wanted in the shooting death of 3-year-old Major Howard.
– There are no credible leads in the murder of Donta Padgett Sr. and the shooting of Donta Padgett Jr.
– Arrest warrants have been issued for four individuals connected to the shooting deaths of Dexter “Deck” Mangham and Sidney Smith; Williams declined to name the suspects.
“We need people that are actually going to do things,” Williams said. “We need people out there in the community that are concerned with black lives, brown lives, white lives purple lives… We need people to do something.”
Mayor Frank Jackson later drew a cultural connection between these recent murders in Cleveland and the community college shooting in Oregon yesterday. “We have a problem,” Jackson said. “We’re going to address that problem. We’re going to make sure that the people of the city of Cleveland know that they’re safe — and if they help us, we want to enable them and empower them to control their community…”
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty announced a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of anyone involved with the shootings of Wakefield and/or Mangham and Smith.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2015.
“Black Lives Matter” (how true) but if it doesn’t seem to matter in the Black community, why should it matter to anyone else? Take back your neighborhoods, control your kids, harass the gangs plaguing your streets, turn-in your terrorists, be parents, be citizens, be stronger then the evils that live within your community. A 5 month old shot in the chest and to all other children and adults that died this month, it’s time to step up to the plate and solve the problem from within. Hope for a better tomorrow by being “active” today. PEACE
Having just moved to Shaker Square from out of town, totally oblivious to the surrounding neighborhoods, I am really astounded at what it is like in this part of Cleveland. I really think the Buckeye-Kinsman area is totally beyond help. It is almost rural in some parts, it really feels like you have totally left civilization and entered a war zone. It’s really amazing how far this area has fallen, and how the people who live here don’t do more to help themselves and their neighbors. I feel really sorry for the city of Cleveland for having to deal with this neighborhood and wasting money there for people who don’t want help.
City officials – so many who have spent years or decades in elected and/or appointed posts – have demonstrated criminal neglect as the streets degenerated into a crazed lawlessness — since the cries from desperate residents cannot be heard from the cool nighttime playground that is the heavily funded and solidly policed central downtown district.