CLEVELAND — A 16-year-old boy died Wednesday after being stabbed in broad daylight, just blocks from the library in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood where another teen was shot and killed back in July.
The teen was stabbed near Pearl Road and Gifford Avenue. He later died at the hospital.
People who witnessed the stabbing said they no longer feel safe living in Old Brooklyn.
“Each year it seems like it's getting worse and it's crazy,” Giovanni Carrillo said.
The stabbing took place just outside of a Sunoco gas station on Pearl Road. An employee said teenage violence in the community is becoming increasingly common.
“Children. They was actually just children,” James Gibney said. “Their future hasn't even started yet.”
Gibney said the commotion initially began inside the gas station.
“A group of kids came inside the store and they started yelling and screaming and we tried to figure out what was going on,” Gibney said, “And then we seen someone fighting outside.”
Paramedics performed CPR on the 16-year-old who had been stabbed in the chest. Cleveland police have not publicly identified the boy.
Carrillo was a classmate of the stabbing victim and said whatever the teens were fighting over wasn’t worth someone ultimately losing their life.
“It's all little petty stuff, it really is,” Carrillo said. “It's stuff they really shouldn't be fighting about.”
Carrillo has lived in Old Brooklyn for more than a decade and said lately he fears for public safety more than ever before.
“We have a school right here. There's another school right here. There's two more schools down there and a school right down the street,” Carrillo said, “Of course there's going to be kids walking by.”
The owner of Urban Kutz Barbershop near the crime scene said they have turned all surveillance footage from their security cameras over to the Cleveland Police Department.
Police have not announced any arrests made in relation to the stabbing Wednesday afternoon.
