Politics & Government

Update: Cleveland Heights Residents Outraged Over Saturday Night Shooting

People packed council chambers to share their side of the story

Updated 11:46 a.m. Tuesday

Cleveland Heights residents packed Monday night, outraged over a weekend shooting on the corner of Cottage Grove Avenue and Yorkshire Road.

One woman came to the meeting and told the crowd of nearly 80 people that a bullet hit her home around 10 p.m. Saturday, two of her five children and her 70-year-old mother inside. No one was injured.

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Someone fired a gun twice, most likely from a car, in front of the home on Yorkshire, said Police Chief Jeffrey Robertson.

Police officers were stationed in the area earlier that night, he said, as the heard there was going to be a huge party at 2037 Cottage Grove, a home that is connected to the Yorkshire Road home the bullet struck.

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, and there was a shooting outside the home Sept. 7, incidents which prompted police to monitor the house.

But police left just before the shots were fired, and some residents questioned whether enough preventative measures were taken that evening and prior to the incident.

Two officers were stationed in a car in the area at 7:30 p.m., Robertson said. They received a call from the Forest Hills neighborhood around 9:30 p.m., so they left to respond. The shooting occurred at 9:55 p.m., according to police reports.

Police returned and arrested one adult, 19-year-old Darius McClain, and his brothers, age 14 and 16, inside the house between 9:55 p.m. and 11:55 p.m., and charged them with disorderly conduct and obstructing official business.

Three girls from Cleveland Heights, ages 13, 15 and 15 who were in the area were also arrested and charged with violating curfew.

Police are still investigating, and no arrests have been made in regards to the shooting.

LaToya Fields, 32, lives on the Yorkshire side, and like many that evening, came to the regular council meeting to tell her side of the story.

She was at a movie and received a frantic voice mail from her 7-year-old daughter around 10 p.m.

“She said, ‘Someone is shooting. Can you come home? We’re scared,’” Fields recalled.

She said when she returned home around 11 p.m., 10 police cars were outside of her home, and police told her to stay away from the windows. She could see there was a party next door, and estimated there were about 50 people there.

"You could see the kids (from 2037 Cottage Grove) mooning the officers outside of the window. They were jumping out of windows, they were throwing things out of windows. I experienced it first-hand because I live there.”

Landlords of the duplex, Sura C. and Haris Sevastopoulos, also attended the meeting to express their concerns and explain what happened that night, as did a dozen others. The regular meeting didn't begin until after 9 p.m.

Residents in the area called the tenants the “neighbors from hell,” and said this incident is one of many problems they’ve had with the family.

"The incident Saturday night involves juveniles that have been involved in numerous disturbances in this city ... these youths have been arrested numerous times for misdemeanors, for curfew all the way up to burglary and robbery," Robertson said. "And they're not in detention hall, they're back on the streets where we deal with them on a daily basis. And we're going to continue to deal with them on a daily basis until they're locked up in juvenile hall, where a lot of them belong, frankly."

Council passed an emergency resolution to authorize the abatement of 2037 Cottage Grove, which they declared to be a nuisance property. The document described the illegal activities police have reported, including assault, disorderly conduct, burglary, theft, unlawful discharge of a firearm(s) and noise disturbances.

Law Director John Gibbon said he is going to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court at 1 p.m. today with Rick Wagner, manager of housing programs, and possibly a police officer to file a complaint, asking that Sura and Haris Sevastopoulos abate the property immediately. Once a complaint is made, the city can then request that the judge issue a temporary restraining order to get the tenants out of the home without a hearing. The restraining order can last for up to 14 days. 

"I'm going to file that complaint asking for that kind of relief to make sure the immediate problem is taken care of," Gibbon said, adding that the landlords have been very cooperative. "We want to try to receive a temporary restraining order to immediately secure the premises."

Gibbon said it is his understanding that the 19-year-old brother is in jail, and has been the only adult in the home. The house now appears to be vacant, but he is not sure where the two younger brothers are.

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