Overview
- Police responded around 10:40 p.m. on Jan. 9 to an Ellis Avenue home in Canton after a 911 call from the boys’ stepmother.
- Officers found the 12-year-old with a gunshot wound to the upper lip from a 9mm handgun, and he was pronounced dead at Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital.
- The 15-year-old fled the house with the firearm, later turned himself in to authorities, and is charged with reckless homicide.
- A witness told police the teen had been showing something about the gun when it fired, and investigators have not said whether the shooting was accidental.
- In the 911 call, the stepmother said the gun had been brought into the home the day before and alleged a friend supplied it, while the police chief called the case heartbreaking for the community.