CLEVELAND, OH – A 10-year-old girl tragically lost her life after a shooting incident on the Fourth of July in the West Side of Cleveland, Ohio. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that the victim was Gracie Griffin.
Authorities were alerted to the incident shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, after which Griffin was rushed to a nearby hospital. After she arrived, she was declared dead. As of yet, the cause of the shooting and whether the child was intentionally targeted remains unknown.
On the same day, Cleveland police officer Jamieson Ritter was shot and killed while on duty. De’Lawnte Hardy, 24, has been charged with aggravated murder connected to Ritter’s death. The Cleveland Division of Police paid tribute to Ritter’s sacrifice in a Facebook post, expressing their grief over the tragic events.
The city of Niles in northeastern Ohio also faced a violent incident on the same day, with a 23-year-old man killed at a house party. A 15-year-old boy is currently in police custody over the shooting.
Tragically, these incidents were part of a broader surge of violent crimes that occurred over the extended Fourth of July weekend. Multiple deaths, including those of two women and an 8-year-old boy, were reported in Chicago and Philadelphia, while a suspected drunk driver caused a fatal crash in New York City. Historically, the Fourth of July has one of the highest rates of violent incidents throughout the year, a trend punctuated by mass shootings, which tend to escalate in warmer weather and during social gatherings.