A 15-year-old boy was taken into custody on Wednesday in connection to a shooting that left one 13-year-old victim injured with two gunshot wounds to the leg.
The shooting came nearly ten minutes after LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers commenced their NBA Championship parade and rally.
Cleveland Police first announced that two females were shot in the incident and later clarified that only one victim was shot. Minutes after James finished a speech claiming that the city of Cleveland “must no longer be a city described by its shortcomings.” As fans poured out of the pavilion, shots rang out on Ontario and Euclid Avenue causing hundreds of terrified people to flee and take cover.
Kimmy Morelli, a 21-year-old fashion design student at Kent State University, drove an hour to attend the daylong celebration and was caught in immediate aftermath of the shooting. She says that a stampede of people were running frantically and screaming “shooter” as they fled the area. Dozens of police officers were seen running toward the direction of the gunshots.
“My phone was dead and I lost everyone I was with and was literally taking cover behind the bar of the JACK Casino,” Morelli told The Independent. “Hundreds of people were crying and running in every direction because no one knew what the fuck we were running from.”
More than 40 children were separated from their families, and according to Cleveland PD, all of the kids were reunited with their loved ones.
Police shared the absolutely touching, heartwarming image above after the rounded up the children and before their parents collected them from the city police department.
The investigation is ongoing, WKYC reports, and police are currently searching for a second suspect.
