CLEVELAND — A mother has a message for Mayor Justin Bibb after her son was shot and killed in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood.
She worries that not enough is being done to stop that kind of violence in the city.
On the night of July 10, she missed seven calls from her daughter while at a meeting. Soon after, there was a frantic drive to the hospital only to have to identify her son, DeAngelo’s body.
“I thought they were going to take me to the trauma department, but they took me to the family room,” Stephanice Washington said.
Just hours before, Washington says she and DeAngelo talked on the phone.
“He said, 'Ma, I want to come spend a couple of days with you,'” Washington said.
Washington, 40, was shot in the chest and leg at East 93rd Street and Hough Avenue.
Police say Washington arrived there in a stolen car, got out, and started interacting with others in a different car before someone shot him.
His mother says her son isn’t from that neighborhood and believes the shooting was territorial.
“They probably saw a new face down there and wanted to show that 'you’re on my turf, you’re on my turf,'” Washington said.
Last week, two others were killed in Cleveland, including a teenage boy.
As Washington plans her son's funeral, she wants Mayor Justin Bibb to know how she feels.
When she hears him talk about violent crime going down, she said that’s not the perception of many people grieving.
“This mayor is staying at the city hall, to me. And I just have to speak my mind. Get out and know your community, get out and know your people,” Washington said.
The city said that Bibb has walked the Hough and other East Side neighborhoods to meet with families and that “one homicide is too many, and there’s always more work to do.”
The walks are part of his summer safety plan. Back in May, Bibb said the city was doubling down on its all-of-government approach.
“There’s a small portion of our city that’s responsible for the majority of our violent crime,” Bibb said.
Bibb credited police work, quarterly warrant sweeps, and the Crime Gun Intelligence Center for a reduction in homicides.
There have been 50 homicides in Cleveland so far this year. By this time last year, there were 70. Homicides have dropped each of the past three years.
“I do want justice for my son, but I want justice for everybody. I want everybody to get treated right, equal, no matter if you’re an ex-convict, ex-felon, ex-whatever,” Washington said.
Washington said that her son wasn’t perfect and did time in prison.
“But that still don’t give nobody no rights to play God,” Washington said.
Her son left being several children of his own.
DeAngelo's mother said that she’s a recovering addict who once lived on the streets, but got her life together and believes her son wanted the same for himself.
“He was a young man that you know had made mistakes; he had been locked up and stuff but he was trying to really take himself back into society,” Washington said.
DeAngelo Washington’s funeral is set for Friday.
