By Pat Galbincea, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland police, neighbors and relatives are baffled over the death of the ‘Gardener of East 112th Street,’ a 48-year-old Cleveland man who was shot to death Wednesday morning in his home.
Willie Cross died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was transported to Huron Road Hospital about 12:15 p.m.
Fifth District Cmdr. Wayne Drummond said police received a call at 11:56 a.m. that Cross had been shot several times, once in the head. There was no apparent forced entry, and nothing was stolen from the house.
Neighbors and relatives were stunned. They said Cross was so well liked it was ‘unimaginable’ that he’d have even one enemy.
His niece, Kay Mattice, said she was asleep upstairs when she was awakened by a loud noise.
“I ran downstairs and saw Uncle Willie, laying on the couch bleeding,” Mattice said. “He told me ‘Niece, I’m OK’ but I don’t think he knew how bad he’d been shot. I didn’t know that noise was gunshots.”
A nephew who lives across the street, Daniel Dowd, 26, said the homicide made no sense.
“He was too nice,” Dowd said. “He was always there to help you. He’d paint houses, shovel snow, cut grass, trim bushes…anything you needed around the house he’d do, whether you were kin or a neighbor. People called him the Gardener of East 112th Street.”
Dowd also said Cross never asked people to pay him, although most people — knowing he was unemployed — offered him money for his services.
His mother, Raydell Cross, was down the street helping a neighbor when word spread quickly that her son was shot at their home.
Cross was a U.S. Army veteran, serving for 18 years, she said.
Story compliments of The Plain Dealer
