A 16-year-old boy was found dead Sunday afternoon in a vacant house.
Officers were called to a vacant house on East 54th Street near Fleet Avenue at 5:20 p.m. for a dead person, according to a Cleveland police news release.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office identified the body as Alexander Mullins.
Police found Mullins with a gunshot wound to the left side of his chest.
“I can just remember playing with him as a little girl," said a family friend who did not want to be identified. "It's tough."
The family friend described Mullins as a good kid with a loving family.
“It’s sick," said the friend. "He didn’t deserve it. No matter what happened, he didn’t deserve it.”
Mullins' dad last saw his son when he dropped him off at Washington Park Environmental Studies High School on Washington Park Boulevard in Newburgh Heights. That was on November 10th.
The vacant house where Mullins was found is less than a mile from his school.
“You see boys all the time going around the back," said Genita Nelson who lives across the street from the home where Mullins was found.
Cleveland police are investigating the Mullins' death as a homicide.
Meanwhile, neighbors are demanding that the abandoned homes in the neighborhood be torn down in an effort to curb crime.
“If they can find a child here, gone, you know, they’re using these houses as drug depots," said Mullins' family friend. "They’re selling drugs out of them. No one knows what really goes on inside of them.”
