CLEVELAND — A 35-year-old wanted in connection with the death of a 17-year-old refugee, who was shot and killed while on his way home from soccer practice in May, was arrested, according to Cleveland Municipal Court records.
Jamell Gaines, 35, is charged with aggravated murder, according to court records.
Court records allege Gains shot and killed Curtis Legg on the porch of a home in the 1400 block of West 85th Street on May 25. After the shooting, he allegedly carjacked a vehicle on West 80th Street and Detroit Avenue, driven by 17-year-old Eric Hakizimana.
“He was just a 17-year-old driving home from soccer. An innocent person obeying a traffic stop. He was almost certainly a victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It is believed the unknown shooter was fleeing the area after killing 31-year-old Curtis Legg in front of his home,” said Eric Smith, special agent in charge of the Cleveland Field Office, when the FBI announced a $25,000 reward that led to an arrest of the shooter.
At the time of the carjacking, police said a male, now identified as Gains, allegedly approached Hakizimana’s car, dragged him out of the vehicle, shot him and fled the area his car.
“Eric and his family are refugees from their home country of the Democratic Republic Congo, having fled violence and war there for a refugee camp in Uganda. Eric and his family came to the United States unable to imagine violence would follow them to a street light at West 80th and Detroit with the sudden and tragic loss of their son,” Smith said during a July 29 news conference.
At the time the murder warrant was issued, Gaines was already in custody at the Cuyahoga County Jail, according to a spokesperson for the Cleveland Police Department.
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