Cleveland’s homicide victims are skewing younger, and higher percentage are black, statistics show
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland’s homicide victims are skewing younger in 2019, and black males account for the lion’s share of the victims, statistics show.
There have been 10 homicide cases involving children this year in Cleveland, compared to seven in 2018. Forty people under age 25 have been killed in 2019; the city has already exceeded the 28 killed in all of 2018, according to statistics from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
As of Saturday, nearly 87 percent of this year’s homicide victims -- 92 out of 106 -- were black and 77 percent are black males. In 2018, roughly 75 percent of homicide victims were black.
Several high-profile homicide cases remain unsolved as the police department’s homicide unit remains understaffed.
Three of the this year’s 10 homicide cases involving children remain unsolved; four of the seven involving children in 2018 also remain unsolved, according to statistics from the prosecutor’s office.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley has criticized Cleveland police department brass for failing to keep the homicide unit properly staffed with detectives.
“If we don’t solve these cases, other people could end up being killed,” O’Malley said.
Two unsolved homicides involving children occurred last month. On Oct. 5, gunfire into a home killed Lyric Lawson, a 6-year-old girl sleeping inside. The killing came weeks before Naierra Lawson, 15, was found shot to death Oct. 23 in a field outside an abandoned home in Glenville.
Also unsolved is the killing of Andre Bello, a 16-year-old boy shot to death April 24.
Homicide detectives are also still working to solve a quadruple homicide that happened in an abandoned home on East 144th Street in the city’s Union-Miles neighborhood. Four people, including a pregnant 18-year-old woman, were found shot to death Sept. 21 in a different abandoned home on East 144th Street.
That home is about a mile south of where two people were killed, including a 16-year-old boy, in another abandoned home on Thursday.
O’Malley said he viewed Thursday’s slayings as a microcosm of the issues plaguing the city.
While various factors can contribute to a rise in homicides, O’Malley said quickly solving homicide cases can quell further violence.
O’Malley pointed to a recent example. Marvin Harris, 20, fatally shot Aramis Roey on June 15, 2017 as the 27-year-old man played basketball with his two young nephews at Gawron Park, O’Malley said.
Police initially arrested another man, but the charges were dropped and the case went unsolved for months.
Three months after the homicide, Harris fatally shot Adrian Wallace, 43, near Gawron Park as he tried to film a rap video, O’Malley said. That homicide also initially went unsolved.
Investigators linked Harris to the two previous shootings only after Harris and several others were arrested in connection with a shootout Nov. 25, 2017.
A stray bullet from a barrage of gunfire in that shootout killed 12-year-old Abdel Bashyti, who was spending time with his father the day after Thanksgiving at his father’s beauty supply store on Buckeye Road and East 116th Street.
Several detectives, along with other law enforcement partners chipped in to quickly identify those involved in the deadly shootout, O’Malley said.
Harris is charged with murder in all three cases and has pleaded not guilty.
The Cleveland police department budgeted for 23 homicide detectives in 2019, but has only 13. The understaffing issue was first brought to light three years ago by a Washington-D.C. law enforcement research group that linked the number of detectives in the unit to solve rates.
Cleveland police officials have declined to explain the shortage of detectives in the homicide unit. A police spokeswoman said last month that the department expected to assign three more detectives to the unit soon, but did not say when that would happen. She did not offer an explanation why the unit isn’t fully staffed.
Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams has the discretion to assign two detectives to the unit for every one that is assigned there based on seniority. No new detectives have been added to the unit since March.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland’s homicide victims are skewing younger in 2019, and black males account for the lion’s share of the victims, statistics show.
There have been 10 homicide cases involving children this year in Cleveland, compared to seven in 2018. Forty people under age 25 have been killed in 2019; the city has already exceeded the 28 killed in all of 2018, according to statistics from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
As of Saturday, nearly 87 percent of this year’s homicide victims -- 92 out of 106 -- were black and 77 percent are black males. In 2018, roughly 75 percent of homicide victims were black.
Several high-profile homicide cases remain unsolved as the police department’s homicide unit remains understaffed.
Three of the this year’s 10 homicide cases involving children remain unsolved; four of the seven involving children in 2018 also remain unsolved, according to statistics from the prosecutor’s office.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley has criticized Cleveland police department brass for failing to keep the homicide unit properly staffed with detectives.
“If we don’t solve these cases, other people could end up being killed,” O’Malley said.
Two unsolved homicides involving children occurred last month. On Oct. 5, gunfire into a home killed Lyric Lawson, a 6-year-old girl sleeping inside. The killing came weeks before Naierra Lawson, 15, was found shot to death Oct. 23 in a field outside an abandoned home in Glenville.
Also unsolved is the killing of Andre Bello, a 16-year-old boy shot to death April 24.
Homicide detectives are also still working to solve a quadruple homicide that happened in an abandoned home on East 144th Street in the city’s Union-Miles neighborhood. Four people, including a pregnant 18-year-old woman, were found shot to death Sept. 21 in a different abandoned home on East 144th Street.
That home is about a mile south of where two people were killed, including a 16-year-old boy, in another abandoned home on Thursday.
O’Malley said he viewed Thursday’s slayings as a microcosm of the issues plaguing the city.
While various factors can contribute to a rise in homicides, O’Malley said quickly solving homicide cases can quell further violence.
O’Malley pointed to a recent example. Marvin Harris, 20, fatally shot Aramis Roey on June 15, 2017 as the 27-year-old man played basketball with his two young nephews at Gawron Park, O’Malley said.
Police initially arrested another man, but the charges were dropped and the case went unsolved for months.
Three months after the homicide, Harris fatally shot Adrian Wallace, 43, near Gawron Park as he tried to film a rap video, O’Malley said. That homicide also initially went unsolved.
Investigators linked Harris to the two previous shootings only after Harris and several others were arrested in connection with a shootout Nov. 25, 2017.
A stray bullet from a barrage of gunfire in that shootout killed 12-year-old Abdel Bashyti, who was spending time with his father the day after Thanksgiving at his father’s beauty supply store on Buckeye Road and East 116th Street.
Several detectives, along with other law enforcement partners chipped in to quickly identify those involved in the deadly shootout, O’Malley said.
Harris is charged with murder in all three cases and has pleaded not guilty.
The Cleveland police department budgeted for 23 homicide detectives in 2019, but has only 13. The understaffing issue was first brought to light three years ago by a Washington-D.C. law enforcement research group that linked the number of detectives in the unit to solve rates.
Cleveland police officials have declined to explain the shortage of detectives in the homicide unit. A police spokeswoman said last month that the department expected to assign three more detectives to the unit soon, but did not say when that would happen. She did not offer an explanation why the unit isn’t fully staffed.
Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams has the discretion to assign two detectives to the unit for every one that is assigned there based on seniority. No new detectives have been added to the unit since March.
Budgeted for 23 detectives but only have 13
