CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Division of Police is investigating a shooting that injured one person outside of a funeral service on the city's east side Friday.
Police say the shooting happened outside of the Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church on East 126th Street.
At the time of the shooting, mourners had gathered inside the church for the funeral service of Di'Mesha Wright, the 23-year-old woman who was fatally shot last week while holding her 7-month-old baby.
Congresswoman Shontel Brown, who attended the funeral and is a member of the Mount Olive Baptist Church, released the following statement to 3News:
“The level of gun violence is devastating and demoralizing. It’s unfathomable that while we were mourning a young woman who was shot and killed, gunfire would be heard outside her service. My heart breaks for everyone who endured today’s assault while memorializing the life and violent loss of a loved one. People should at least be able to attend a funeral in peace. As a member of Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, it’s painful to see what my friends and loved ones are needlessly enduring. As a member of Congress, I’m going to continue fighting for gun safety legislation, because no one, no community, deserves to live in fear.”
Margaret Brown works as a secretary at the church and was there when the shooting happened. She said in her 30 years of working there, she's never seen anything like it.
"At that point, we heard the shots, nd everybody started running. Nothing like this has ever happened before," Brown said. "Young kids are dying for nothing, for purely nothing."
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb also addressed the shooting in a statement to 3News:
"This is gun violence occurring on top of gun violence – a shooting outside a funeral service for a victim killed by a previous shooting just last week. This. Must. Stop. We are deploying every single possible resource and officers are working around the clock every day throughout the City to combat crime; however we cannot do this alone. Those who use guns to commit crimes in our city need to ask themselves when is enough going to be enough?”
Cleveland City Councilman Michael Polensek also said the following:
“The Council President, myself as Chairman of City Council’s Public Safety Committee and all members of Cleveland City Council, find the level of gun-related violence in the city to be disgusting and outrageous. We call upon Mayor Bibb and his Administration to, once again, ask Governor DeWine for the deployment of the Ohio Highway Patrol and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff, Howard Patel, to deploy Sheriff’s Deputies into our neighborhoods to assist CPD in taking back out streets. All Clevelanders who care about our city, must demand that action be taken, now.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Cleveland Division of Police updated their information to say there was only one victim of the shooting. Our reporting has been updated to reflect this change.
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