CLEVELAND — More than 200 friends, family and community members filled the street where a 7-year-old boy was hit and killed, calling for justice for Amir Prewitt.
“He was being a kid,” said Amir’s mother Rayshawnda Maclin. “He was just being a kid.”
Police said the boy was riding a skateboard outside the Lakeshore Beach Apartments in Cleveland’s Northshore Collinwood neighborhood around 7:20 Friday evening when the driver of a Mercedes SUV hit the boy, dragged him and drove off.
“I hope you don’t get no sleep at night because his mother’s not getting any sleep at night,” said a woman at Monday’s remembrance.
Maclin remembered her son as wonderful, with a great smile and deep dimples who was athletic and “could run at the speed of light if you let him.”
She said Amir would have loved the attention from mourners at Monday’s balloon release.
But his mother is haunted by the question of who killed her 7-year-old.
“The killer could be amongst me right now, and I wouldn’t know because nobody wants to speak up,” said Maclin.
And that’s something that needs to change, said Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek.
“They came here for a reason,” Polensek told the crowd gathered outside the apartments. “They knew somebody in here. Somebody’s connected to the driver of the car. You owe it to the family.”
Polensek said police found the SUV that hit the boy about two miles away near East 174th and St. Clair.
Police said it was empty.
Neighbors said Monday they’re eager for an arrest.
“Because that was a baby,” said Brittani Stewart. “No parent should feel like that right now. No parent should feel like that at all.”
Maclin said she can’t fathom the type of person who would run down a 7-year-old and leave him in the street, now stained with skid marks.
“Y’all killed my baby,” said Maclin. “Y’all killed a 7 year-old dragging him, scorch marks through this parking lot and didn’t even stop. Just turn yourself in.”
Anyone with information about who was driving that SUV at 7:20 p.m. Friday is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Cuyahoga County at (216) 252-7463.
