Cleveland man shoots 11-year-old for playing on lawn, close to his car, reports say

By: Barry Leibowitz
Topics: Daily Blotter

Charles DuBose

/ WOIO

(CBS/WOIO) CLEVELAND, Ohio - Keep off the grass, and stay away from my car...or I'll shoot?!

A Cleveland man is accused of shooting an 11-year-old girl who was among some children playing on his front lawn Friday night, reports say.

Charles DuBose, 55, DuBose reportedly got mad because Ivhan'e Merritt and another girl were playing too close to his car, according to CBS affiliate WOIO.

The station reports that DuBose yelled at them to stop playing around his vehicle, but they didn't. He then fired one shot at the kids, striking Merritt in the upper torso. Merritt was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center, but was released Sunday night.

Shamarra Hall, 10, said DuBose became upset when one of the children in the group walked across a part of his lawn and another bumped into his car, reported Foxnews.com.

"We started running and then that's when my friend Ivhan`e goes 'I got shot, I got shot,' and we thought she was playing until she fell," Hall told the station.

The girl's mother, Aquadea Merritt, said the bullet grazed her daughter's liver.

The 11-year-old was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center, but was released Sunday night, reports WOIO.

The allegedly trigger-happy Dubose plead not guilty Monday. He was being held on $250,000 bond.

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by hydepark1 June 16, 2011 4:10 AM EDT: OBVIOUSLY..he has a mental problem and the ones defending him do to, all you have to do is look at their comments and how strange and heartless they sound..could there be molesters and child killers on here???; Reply to this comment


by Learn How June 16, 2011 2:38 AM EDT: Pled not guilty? What next ACLU? Call "BIG" Al Sharpton to come to his defence? Hold rallies and say let my people go? I hope not. I just read another case where the afore mentioned is going to rally for someone who is guilty. There problem is what this person received as punishment. I am not racist. My friend who is reading the same stories with me tonight is black and he was the one who brought up ACLU and Big Al. He just said they can cause more corruption than help. We both agree this guy needs to be commited to a state hopsital for life. Hope this child will over come this. There is where we should have our biggest concern. Kids grow up and your grass will always grow back.; Reply to this comment


by MauriaBea June 16, 2011 1:38 AM EDT: I played Sprinkler Tag on a neighbor's lawn back in the '70s (was also where the school bus picked me up) and as long as I was within eyesight of my House's front window, I was never in trouble. Why in the World is the majority defending the Guy w/the Gun?!? The fact that He's defending Himself w/a story that kids were on His Lawn & touched His car is His defense for shooting a child? According to who? 911 should've been 1st. Unless one of those children pulled a weapon on Him 1st, He's attempted Murder.; Reply to this comment


by justplainoldme June 15, 2011 3:59 PM EDT: If his car was that precious to him, why didn't he park it in his garage? He had no right to shoot that little girl, regardless as to what her name was, like it was suggested in an earlier post.; Reply to this comment


by rainbowroosie June 15, 2011 1:34 PM EDT: He pled not guilty??????; Reply to this comment


by rainbowroosie June 15, 2011 1:34 PM EDT: He pled not guilty??????; Reply to this comment

by honey7167 June 15, 2011 6:42 AM EDT

This is really a shame. This man gets arrested for injuring a child because the parents are not doing their job. But, rather than judge people...I believe this is a call for more government oversight of underage children. In my community, we have a police officer that also serves as the juvenile liaison. We call the police and get him to come out and investigate the matter. The next step is child or juvenile social workers through the local county office. I found out in my community that peace orders can be issued against juveniles for these types of incidents without even going through a judge. You just show up to the office after you have made repeated complaints to the police (documenting the incidents with names and addresses of the children) and they give you the peace order.

I know that it is very difficult to get kids to comply; but, in these delicate situations it is essential to keep your cool. My experience has been that some parents will even send their children down to a home where the people live that the parents want to harass to cause a little "street theater". But, again...it's important to address issues with the police in a way that makes "your" problem everyone's problem.

For example, it would be helpful to state that you witnessed children damaging property or loitering in the area blocking the street so that cars can't pass...those are appropriate times to contact the police because you are witnessing a disturbance in the neighborhood. The children are creating a disturbance in front of your neighbors house and you want the police to come out. Or, the children are blocking my driveway and I can't get out. Or, the children are blocking the street and are creating a disturbance in the neighborhood. The key words are "disturbance" and "blocking" and "loitering" and "property damage". That is enough to start documentation on the offenders to send them to juvenile services and get the ball rolling on creating a "record" for them. I encourage ALL frustrated homeowners and others witnessing this to take that route rather than the other way.

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by hydepark1 June 16, 2011 3:55 AM EDT: HONEY...you are talking out of your azz...he got arrested for shooting a child! he has the menatl capacity of a gnat and so do you...


by royrogers1948 June 16, 2011 3:52 PM EDT: Thanks hydepark


by angelofurnightmare June 19, 2011 9:49 AM EDT: you really should seek a lil mental help yourself. I don't care what childish activity a child is involved in no one has a right to shoot them. People like the man who shot a child and the people who feel its ok to try to KILL A CHILD need to be...well we all have feelings about the punishment here. It just angers me that anyone could take the side of a man who tried to KILL A CHILD..........UR AN IDIOT!


by onefeather2 June 15, 2011 1:31 AM EDT: Maybe something good will come out of this, even if it is know where and what your child is doing and tell them even if it does not do any good, to stay out of other people's yards. You can never know how or why a person will react.; Reply to this comment

by thealtamiranos June 14, 2011 5:32 PM EDT

Thank God the little girl didn't die. I don't condone shooting a child for stepping on a neighbors lawn by any means however I can sympathize with the angry homeowner. These days many children have zero respect for the property of others and are very cavalier in showing it. People spend a lot of time and/or money maintaining their lawns, vehicles and insurance aren't cheap. Children in our neighborhood will run over malibu lights with their bikes or electric toys, run their dogs and let them poop in your grass and pee on your front door, sit and rock in your porch rocking chairs, dig up your flowers, chalk up your driveway, continually hit cars with balls (baseball, tennis balls, etc) and purposely run over sprinklers with their ride on toys as a game. I continually ask them to move away from the cars, etc not just my own but I look out for my neighbors as well. I sat in my window and watch three boys playing baseball and hit my neighbors car across the street three times. When I went outside to tell them to move away from the cars and be careful not to hit the cars one responded with we're not hitting the cars...a blantant lie and I said I saw you hit that car not once not twice but three times I'm just telling you not to hit it again because that car doesn't belong to you. It gets quite annoying but they are sent outside by their parents like the neighborhood is their kingdom to rip and run and scream at the top at the top of their lungs. All of the families that live in the cul de sac have children but you wouldn't know it because we don't allow them to run up and down the street yet the families that don't live in the cul de sac send their children into the cul de sac so they don't have to watch them as if the area is an automatic babysitting.

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by hydepark1 June 16, 2011 3:53 AM EDT: THEIR KIDS...AND YOU HAVE A MENTAL PROBLEM JUST LIKE THE SHOOTER..PLEASE STAY ON YOUR MEDS


by ralphing June 14, 2011 1:41 PM EDT: Back in the 70's, I had this neighbor a few houses down who would take our ball if it landed in his yard, and would never give them back. By the time I was 10, he had at least 20 balls and Frisbee that touched his grass. We tried very hard not to let anything land in his yard because we knew he would take it.

One night when I was 10, two of my friends were sitting on my porch, when we heard this loud BOOM. We looked down on the corner and saw our neighbor, who is an old retired man standing at the corner with a shotgun in his hand. He had never threatened us before so we weren't afraid of him, when we walked up to him to ask what he was doing. He didn't speak at all. We looked around the corner along the side of his corner house, and saw a body laying out in the middle of the street with a huge stream of blood flowing from it. He had shot a 16 y.o. in the head with his gun.

My friend thought it was his brother so we ran down to the body, and saw it was his brothers friend. Earlier that evening, there were six teens were walking down the sidewalk while talking. A couple of them stepped on the edge of this neighbor's grass since a sidewalk isn't that wide. The old man was so upset, he lied in wait for hours in his backyard, waiting for them to walk past again. When they walk back past his house, he shot into the crowd, but only that one kid got hit. The cops came and arrested him, but he was released in about three years. His wife stayed in the home during his prison time, then when he was released they moved away.

This guy never ranted or raged about his yard, which he kept very, very neat. The only word I ever heard him say to us was to not walk on his grass, in a calm voice. He was just a typical neighbor who kept to himself, and who didn't like no one walking on his grass. Not in a million years would you think he would curse at you, wave a cane at you, or blow your brains out with a 12-gauge shotgun.; Reply to this comment