Abdel Bashiti a 12 year old Cleveland boy is killed after being struck by a stray bullet while helping at his father’s beauty supply store when sudden gunfire rang out.
Abdel Latif Bashiti a 12 year old Cleveland, Ohio boy has died after being fatally shot outside his father’s beauty supply store Friday night by a stray bullet.
The Washington Post reported the seventh-grader at Hillside Middle School, had been celebrating Thanksgiving with his family before Friday evening’s shooting which also injured five others.
Abdel Bashiti was at his father’s store when they walked outside after hearing gunfire. A bullet struck the boy in the torso, with the child dying at the scene, police said.
Unidentified suspects allegedly fired on a group of teenagers, ranging in ages from 14 to 16 who had congregated outside a liquor store around 7:30 p.m. Of the five boys hit, a 16 year old remained in critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head.
‘He was just one of the most lovable kids you’d ever meet,’ told Mohammad Mator, a family friend via Cleveland.com told of the slain 12 year old boy. ‘He was just one of those individuals at the wrong place at the wrong time.’
Razan Bashiti, Abdel’s aunt, said her nephew loved playing sports with his cousins and would occasionally help his father at the store just to spend time with him.
‘He helped everyone,’ Bashiti said, ‘He was just one of the best kids’.
WOIO-TV reported no arrests to date having been made, with Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams saying there are unknown numbers of suspects dressed in black hoodies still on the run. The police chief was unable to validate whether the shooting had been gang related.
‘We don’t know exactly what spurred this, what happened, but definitely, our hearts go out to the family of the victims here,’ Williams said in a news conference.
Adding, ‘The only thing we have right now is that kids crossed paths and shots were fired.’
A motive for the shooting wasn’t immediately clear. Police suspect the perpetrators had been juveniles.
Come Saturday evening, a rally was held calling for justice following the violence.
Welcome to a brave new America….
Update Monday November 27:
Charges including aggravated murder and attempted murder were filed against the two 15-year-old suspects in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court.
One of the teens was arrested at his high school in Cleveland Monday while the other suspect remains on the run, Cleveland.com reported.
