A man carrying a gun exchanged fire with East Cleveland school-system security outside Shaw High School on Thursday afternoon, sending investigators swarming the campus as the suspect fled into the surrounding neighborhood. No one was hurt, but the shootout has reignited fears about gun violence near a school that has already weathered repeated bursts of bloodshed tied to its grounds in recent years.
The gunfire broke out at about 3:15 p.m. Thursday outside the East Cleveland high school, according to FOX 8 News. School-system security encountered an armed male outside the building, and the man discharged his firearm toward the guards, a county spokesperson told the station. A security officer returned fire before the suspect ran from the scene, investigators said.
The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department is now investigating the incident, and the station's I-Team camera captured investigators still working the scene Thursday evening.
A Campus With a Troubled Recent History
Thursday's shootout is not the first time gunfire has erupted in the vicinity of Shaw High School. During Labor Day weekend, East Cleveland police confirmed at least three separate shootings, one of which left at least three people shot overnight in front of the same school, according to WKYC.
The school has also been at the center of violence tied to its alumni reunion weekend. In 2024, police said 10 people were shot and one person was killed in violence that followed the Shaw High School reunion, per News 5 Cleveland. Among the victims that September weekend was 23-year-old Erin J. Strozier of East Cleveland, who was fatally shot on Elwood Avenue, with additional shootings reported on Euclid and Collamer avenues, according to cleveland.com. That outlet also noted none of the 2024 shootings happened at the reunion event itself.
Thin Police Staffing Amid Heightened Security Pushes
The city has leaned on outside help to try to keep the area safe. Ahead of this year's reunion weekend, East Cleveland brought in assistance from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office and visiting officers from sheriff's departments in other counties, cleveland.com reported. The city's security plan for that weekend included vehicle and foot patrols at identified gathering points, backed by a drone and a helicopter for additional monitoring.
That show of force came even as East Cleveland's own police department has struggled to staff up. As of September, the department had just 17 officers on duty despite being budgeted for 24 to 30, according to the same cleveland.com report.
Part of a Broader Pattern Near Cleveland Schools
Thursday's incident fits into a grim statistical backdrop. Cleveland recorded 1,547 shootings within 500 yards of a school between 2017 and 2025 — an average of nearly 172 a year — giving it the second-highest annual rate of shootings near schools among 31 similarly sized cities, according to News 5 Cleveland.
The trend extends statewide and nationally. U.S. K-12 schools logged 1,468 firearm incidents in the decade ending in 2023, a 324% jump from the 346 incidents recorded the decade before, per Axios Cleveland. Ohio alone saw 127 such incidents over that same decade, the fifth-highest total of any state, the outlet reported.
Guns have continued turning up at Ohio schools even in recent months. A firearm was confiscated at a security checkpoint at Cleveland's John Marshall High School in March, and the following month an 8-year-old brought a loaded 9mm handgun to Longcoy Elementary School in Kent, leading to the arrest of the child's mother, cleveland.com reported. That same report noted guns showed up at several other schools across Ohio in April, including in Maple Heights and Lake County.
For now, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department's investigation into Thursday's shooting outside Shaw High School remains active, with no injuries reported and the suspect still at large as of Thursday evening.
