The Public Square Tree-Lighting Shooting: Two Teens Wounded, Two Teens Cleared, and a 15-Year-Old Who Turned Himself In

Cleveland's WinterLand tree lighting on Saturday, November 25, 2023, drew roughly 1,700 people to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square and about 38,000 through Tower City over the holiday weekend. The ceremony ended around 8 p.m. Several hundred teenagers, most without adults, stayed. Fights broke out. The ice rink closed early.

At about 8:40 p.m., in the square's southeast quadrant near the monument and an RTA bus stop, a 15-year-old boy fired several shots into a group that was fighting and ran. A 15-year-old and a 13-year-old were hit. Officers on foot patrol took cover, then gave first aid until EMS arrived. Both boys were taken to MetroHealth; the older one was initially listed as critical. Both survived.

This file is built from the Cleveland police bodycam released after the shooting, the Prosecutor's Office statements, and the juvenile-court outcome as reported.

The night, on bodycam

Four body camera videos were released. They show what a foot-patrol officer sees when shots go off in a crowd: the run for cover, the scramble to find who is hit, tourniquets and pressure on wounds while the square empties. Monument surveillance footage, released separately, shows the crowd scattering. One officer's camera captures the discovery of a handgun in a nearby dumpster; its connection to the shooting was never confirmed publicly.

Two 17-year-olds were arrested on the square that night. Each had a gun. One of the guns was stolen.

Who was arrested, and who was cleared

In the first days, the two arrests were widely reported as the shooting arrests. They were not. By early December, Prosecutor Michael O'Malley announced that one of the 17-year-olds had been cleared of any involvement and that neither would be charged with the shooting. Their charges were for what they were carrying: carrying a concealed weapon for one, and carrying a concealed weapon plus receiving stolen property for the other. The outcomes of those juvenile weapons cases have not been reported.

Our earlier description of this episode called those "wrongful arrests." That is our characterization, not the prosecutor's. The two were lawfully arrested for the weapons they had; what was wrong was the public assumption that they were the shooters.

Finding the shooter

On December 15, 2023, the Prosecutor's Office and Cleveland police released photographs of the suspect and Crime Stoppers offered up to $5,000. The week of December 18, the 15-year-old turned himself in to Cleveland police. On December 20, O'Malley announced the shooter was identified and in custody: "What was supposed to be a joyous occasion quickly turned into a tragic event." Officials credited public tips.

He was charged in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court with one count of discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises, four counts of felonious assault, one count of inducing panic, and one count of carrying a concealed weapon.

How juvenile court resolved it

While awaiting disposition, the teen was arrested again for assaulting detention officers. Judge Anne McDonough committed him to three years in juvenile detention, as reported in October 2024. No bindover to adult court was sought or reported, which means the case ended in a juvenile adjudication rather than a criminal conviction, and his name remains sealed. For what that distinction means, see our explainer on charged versus convicted.

What changed

Mayor Justin Bibb's statement the next morning, "I am both saddened and angered by this senseless violence. Enough is enough," set off a year of argument about downtown security. The monument's director said Public Square "and the city core need more resources"; a restaurant manager on the square said it was the worst he had seen in fifteen years downtown. The 2024 tree lighting came with smart cameras and added security. Fights still broke out. No one was shot.

Why this case file matters

A juvenile shooting case leaves almost no public record: no name, no trial, a disposition reported in a sentence. What this case did leave behind is the bodycam, and it is a clear record of two things. First, what officers actually do in the seconds after shots in a crowd, which is mostly medicine. Second, how quickly a public can settle on the wrong suspects when arrests and a shooting happen on the same square on the same night. Our video on the case walks the footage from the first shots to the dumpster. Every date on this file is on our court dates tracker.

Sources & records

• Cuyahoga County Prosecutor: Public Square shooter identified (Dec. 20, 2023)
• Cuyahoga County Prosecutor: suspect photos released (Dec. 15, 2023)
• AP: teen charged in Public Square shooting (Dec. 2023)
• Signal Cleveland: update on the two wounded teens (Nov. 27, 2023)
• News 5 Cleveland: bodycam shows chaotic moments after the shooting (Dec. 2023)
• WKYC: investigation update, two 17-year-olds not charged with shooting (Dec. 2023)
• Cleveland 19: three-year juvenile commitment (Oct. 2024)

Case status as of this writing: the 15-year-old shooter was adjudicated in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court and committed to three years in juvenile detention; the two 17-year-olds arrested that night were never accused of the shooting, and the outcomes of their weapons cases have not been reported. Juveniles are not named. This article is based on Prosecutor's Office releases, released body camera footage, and contemporaneous reporting. Featured image: the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square, Cleveland, via Wikimedia Commons, credited below the image.