CLEVELAND — Cleveland homicide detectives have arrested two 17-year-old males in connection with the shooting death of a Lyft driver last week.
Cleveland Police spokesperson Wilfredo Diaz said in a news release that homicide detectives worked with Phoenix investigators on the case as it appeared the person who ordered the ride was in Arizona.
That individual was later confirmed not to be the shooting suspect, Diaz said. Further investigation brought the focus back to Ohio, and arrest warrants were obtained for the two teens.
According to Diaz, detectives seized two guns while executing search warrants on the city's East Side. No further information was released about the arrests.
The shooting happened just before 1 a.m. on Feb. 10 in the 2400 block of East 84th Street. Police responded to the area after a car crashed into a dumpster. Officers found the driver, 27-year-old Vasyl Shvets, of Parma, slumped over the steering wheel after having been shot. Shvets was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“This senseless homicide brought uncalled-for suffering to the family of Mr. Shvets, and our hearts go out to the family. Though we cannot change the actions taken by these individuals, we are committed to bringing justice. Our Homicide Unit worked tirelessly around the clock, locally and out of state, to arrest these suspects. We will continue to bring justice to the families affected by this crime,” Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd said in the news release.
Shvets' death was the second time in a 27-hour span that a rideshare driver was killed in Cleveland.
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On Feb. 8, just before 10 p.m., Cleveland officers responded to the area of East 103rd Street and Rosehill Avenue after a 56-year-old man crashed his vehicle into a guardrail on a residential street — it was later determined that the driver, Antoine Latham, had been shot in the head.
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On Feb. 11, a 20-year-old Garfield Heights man, Derreck Dove, was arrested in connection with Latham's death. It's unclear in that case if the 20-year-old was the person who ordered the rideshare.
