A 3-year-old boy was in serious condition Thursday night after being shot in the 11300 block of Woodland Avenue on Cleveland's East Side. Cleveland EMS said the child was rushed to University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital following the shooting.
Citizen published its report about the shooting before Cleveland 19 News published its report. Cleveland 19 News said the boy was shot Thursday night and that his condition was described as serious. The station noted it had reached out to Cleveland Police for more information and said a crew was headed to the scene, asking readers to check back for updates as the situation developed.
A separate community safety app, Citizen, reported additional details that have not been independently confirmed by Cleveland 19's account. Citizen's report said the child was accidentally shot twice at a residence on Woodland Avenue, while also stating that his condition was still unclear — a detail that conflicts with Cleveland 19's description of the boy as being in serious condition. Citizen also reported that a 911 caller flagged an unconfirmed incident at 11305 Woodland Avenue.
Shell Casings Found, Search for Armed Man Underway
According to the Citizen report, police located two spent shell casings at the scene and were searching for a man who fled with a firearm.
No official statement, incident report, or confirmed suspect identity had been released by Cleveland Police as of the latest available reporting. The child's precise medical condition beyond being described as serious also remained unconfirmed.
A Broader Pattern of Young Victims
Cleveland's overall shooting and homicide numbers have declined since 2021, but children and teenagers continue to bear a disproportionate share of the city's gun violence, according to The Trace. The outlet reported that shooting homicide deaths among people under 18 in Cuyahoga County have more than tripled since 2010, reaching 18 deaths in 2023. A Cuyahoga County Board of Health report cited by The Trace found that overall child fatalities hit a five-year high that same year, with firearms responsible for 19 percent of them.
Cleveland, the county's largest city, accounts for roughly 75 percent of its homicides, and guns are used in more than 80 percent of those cases, per The Trace's reporting. The outlet also found that Cuyahoga County's youth firearm homicide rate — 7 per 100,000 youth residents in 2023 — ran more than 30 percent higher than in three comparable counties examined by Ohio Capital Journal: Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, Franklin County in Ohio, and Wayne County in Michigan.
Ohio's Child Gun Deaths Outpace National Average
The scale of the problem extends statewide. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1 to 19 nationally, according to Children's Defense Fund data cited by Cleveland.com, and Ohio's firearm death rates among children exceed that national average, with the highest death toll concentrated among teens 15 to 19. The outlet reported that in Ohio's urban areas, including Cleveland, child gun deaths are more often homicides, while suicides make up a larger share in rural parts of the state.
Cleveland.com's reporting also highlighted other recent young victims, including 10-year-old Kaden Coleman, killed in what investigators described as an accidental shooting tied to a dispute, and 10-year-old Gracie Griffin, who was killed while attending a Fourth of July gathering. The same report noted that 18-year-old Ecaurion M. Wymes was killed and two 16-year-olds were injured in a separate shooting on West 46th Street. Nationally, America's Health Rankings found that firearms were involved in 68 percent of homicide deaths and 45 percent of suicide deaths among children and adolescents in 2024.
As of the latest reporting, the circumstances surrounding Thursday's shooting on Woodland Avenue — including motive and whether anyone has been charged — had not been established by official sources.
