CLEVELAND — The four suspects arrested in the carjacking of an Ohio State assistant football coach have been linked to violent robberies across the city in recent weeks, officials said Tuesday.
Authorities said the suspects stole Keenan Bailey’s Dodge Durango at gunpoint Monday while he was at Ginn Academy on East 162nd Street recruiting players. Bailey coaches Ohio State’s tight ends. He was not hurt in the incident.
After robbing Bailey, the youths made two other attempts to rob victims of their cars, authorities said. The four were arrested at East 107th Street and St. Clair Avenue after a chase that involved the Cleveland police’s helicopter unit.
Two of the youths, 15-year-old and 17-year-old boys from Cleveland, are named in a 32-count complaint in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court involving four aggravated robberies within a 24-hour period, county prosecutors said.
The 17-year-old has at least eight cases pending in court involving car thefts and one pending on charges of failing to comply with police, the prosecutor’s office said. He was placed on house arrest and ordered to wear an ankle monitor.
He was wearing the device when officers arrested him Monday afternoon.
The other suspects, Anyrie Wallace, 18, of Cleveland, and Ja’Brian Howard, 18, of Euclid, have charges pending in Cleveland Municipal Court.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said Howard is accused of aggravated robbery charges stemming from an incident Nov. 1, when he and the 15-year-old suspect robbed a 61-year-old man.
Howard and the youth pistol-whipped the victim at an ATM near East150th Street and Euclid Avenue while his child was in his car, O’Malley said. They are accused of driving a vehicle that they had carjacked Oct. 30 near East 55th and Cedar Avenue, he said.
The 61-year-old man pulled out a gun and shot at both suspects. Howard was shot in the hand, and the 15-year-old was shot in the belly button. His injuries forced him to use a colostomy bag, which he had when he was arrested Monday, O’Malley said.
According to O’Malley’s office, the four suspects were in a Lexus when they carjacked Bailey and stole his Durango from the parking lot of Ginn Academy at about 2 p.m. Monday.
The day before, on Dec.10, four suspects stole a Lexus from East 90th Street, north of Carrie Court. The description of the suspects matches the four suspects from the carjacking at Ginn Academy, the prosecutor’s office said.
After stealing Bailey’s SUV on Monday, two of the suspects attempted to carjack a woman in the 500 block of East 103rd St., but she drove off.
Another woman was almost carjacked on Parkwood Avenue at about 3 p.m. by two suspects driving a Durango with Florida license plates. Bailey is a native of Florida.
The suspects pointed a gun at the woman’s window and yelled, “Get out before I’ll kill you,” according to the prosecutor’s office. The woman also drove away from the scene.
“This is yet another example of a small group of juveniles and young adults doing a tremendous amount of damage in a short period of time,” O’Malley’s office said in a statement.
