CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Division of the FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of a person who shot and killed a 17-year-old boy during a carjacking while he was stopped at a red light on the city’s West Side.
Eric Hakizimana, 17, was shot to death on May 25 during a carjacking at the intersection of Detroit Avenue and West 80th Street as he drove home from playing soccer.
“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.
The shooting happened in the 8000 block of Detroit Avenue on May 25 just before 10 p.m.
Police said an unknown male approached Hakizimana’s car, dragged him out of the vehicle, shot him and fled the area in his vehicle.
“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.
A $25,000 reward is being offered as part of funds allocated from “Operation Legend." Anyone with information should call the FBI Cleveland Division at 216-622-6842.
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