EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — The family of 22-year-old Alishah Pointer, who was kidnapped, tortured, killed and found in a burned out house in East Cleveland, gathered at the abandoned home her body was found in as the city demolished the home Saturday.
Pointer's body was found in a home in the 14500 block of Savannah in East Cleveland. She died from gunshot wounds and her death was ruled a homicide.
Ward 3 East Cleveland city councilman Ernest Smith said the house was already red tagged for demolition last year, but he wanted to speed up the process after Pointer’s death.
“In a tragic incident like this I felt, my colleagues felt and the mayor felt that it was very, very important to get rid of this eyesore,” said Smith. “For not only the family but for members of the community. Especially my neighbors and residents that reside on Savannah.”
Kathryn Pointer, Alishah Pointer’s aunt, said she received a call yesterday informing her of the upcoming demolition and quickly rallied her family together.
“I said, ‘Be there, wear your shirts,’ because this is the reason why we're here, because of my niece. So we're going to support her and let her name remain in everyone's memory, even in their mouth,” said Kathryn Pointer.
Kathryn Pointer said the demolition provides a small sense of closure to her family, and she's thankful for the support they've received from the community.
“Grateful. Grateful. Some sense of closure, but not a lot. But just grateful," said Kathryn Pointer. “This really rocked Cleveland. So we have gotten a lot of support, a lot of support. And its thankful that people in a time of tragedy did not forget about us from the beginning to even present. Everyone has just really embraced us. And it's just been wonderful."
Four people accused in connection with Alishah Pointer's death have each been indicted on two counts of aggravated murder, as well as one count of kidnapping.
Police have not said what role each suspect allegedly played in Alishah Pointer's kidnapping, torture and murder.
Investigators said her attackers believed she had information connected to an unrelated deadly shooting in Cleveland days earlier. Police are unsure whether or not Pointer knew anything about the crime at this time.
RELATED: 4 suspects in Alishah Pointer's death each indicted on 2 counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
