Man Fatally Shot While Attempting To Force His Way Into A Home Where His Ex-Girlfriend Was Attending A St. Patrick’s Day Party

CLEVELAND, OHIO – An 18-year-old man shot and killed another man who was trying to break into a home early Thursday morning.  The incident happened around 7:00 a.m. in the Stockyards neighborhood at a home on West 54^th Street and Dennison Avenue, where guests from a St. Patrick’s Day party the day before had stayed overnight.

Derrick Wilson, 29, came to the property looking for his ex-girlfriend. Before he could get into the house where she was, he got into an argument with an unidentified male outside. That argument escalated into a fight, and the man who was originally at the home went back inside and locked the door.

Determined to get inside, Wilson began kicking the door. After several failed attempts by Wilson, an 18-year-old male inside the home who was not involved in the fight fired a single gunshot through the door.  Wilson was struck in the back. Police reports say that arriving officers found a broken window and a large pool of blood on the porch. Wilson was transported to Metro Health by ambulance, where he died from his wound.

Homicide detectives interviewed the man who pulled the trigger. Accompanied by his lawyer, he surrendered his gun to police. He was not arrested, and detectives are treating the incident as a potentially justified shooting, pursuant to Ohio’s Castle Doctrine.

Now, for the rest of the story…in early February 2021, a judge issued a temporary protection order barring Wilson from going near his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend after she accused Wilson of attacking her.

On February 7^th, Wilson allegedly attacked the woman at her home on the city’s West Side, according to police. She told the officers at the time the two had been in a relationship for two years., and that over the last year he had become increasingly violent toward her. He had allegedly choked her several times, and she said that he had access to weapons, and she believed that he was fully capable of killing her.

In the February 7^th attack, he punched her several times in the body, knocked her to the floor, and stomped on her head several times, rendering her unconscious. She stated that she regained consciousness, didn’t see Wilson in the room, and jumped out of a second-floor window to escape the home. She then ran to a neighbor’s home and called for an ambulance. She spoke with police at Metro Health where she was treated for multiple cuts and bruises.

Prosecutors filed charges against Wilson two days later and a warrant was issued for his arrest; however, he was never arrested on the charges. Wilson had three previous criminal convictions for carrying concealed weapons and possessing weapons with a felony record.

This was the second time in recent weeks that a similar situation has ended in a fatal self-defense shooting in Cleveland, and the two incidents are eerily connected. On February 21^st, a 21-year-old man staying with a domestic violence victim for her protection fatally shot Mark Downs after he returned to her home to attack her.

Downs had assaulted her earlier in the day, and had previously been arrested and charged with domestic violence in connection with an attack in which he repeatedly punched her in the face on February 7^th, the same day that Derek Wilson assaulted his girlfriend.  The 21-year-old man was not charged for the shooting, as it was also a case of self-defense under the State’s Castle Doctrine.