A Cleveland family is desperate to know who killed LeDarrius Howze.
The 25-year-old was a son, a fiancé, and a father to two baby girls and stepfather to a little boy.
Howze was shot and killed near Spruce Court on July 29. His car and gun were stolen and later recovered. Howze was licensed to carry, his family said.
Forty-eight days later, no one has been charged with murder in the case.
Next Saturday, Sept. 23, was the date he was supposed to marry the mother of his children, Lori.
“They took my whole life away from me,” Lori said on Friday. “And we know somebody knows something and nobody is talking because that’s just what they do.”
For Howze’s father, Warnell, it was torture to bury his son — a son who had graduated high school and college, and was hard at work as an electrician to support his young family.
“People say 'rest in peace,' but I can’t say rest in peace to my son because these guys are still on the streets. How can he rest?” Warnell Howze said.
As of Friday, there have been 81 homicides in Cleveland this year.
As of August, the Cleveland Police Department reported that only 47 percent of the city’s homicides had been solved.
“That’s not where we want to be as a city,” said Chief Calvin William at a press conference announcing a special and anonymous tip line that ran for three Sundays. It is not clear how much it helped. CPD currently has 13 homicide detectives. They need several more to be fully staffed.
