CINCINNATI — A teenager has been arrested in the shooting death of a 21-year-old man in Mount Auburn, Cincinnati police said.
CPD said officers, in addition to the Fugitive Apprehension Unit, arrested a 17-year-old on Saturday in connection to the death of Benjamin Addison, a UC student found shot outside his vehicle in the 2000 block of Highland Avenue near Dorchester Avenue on March 30.
"We were relieved more than anything that they told us that they caught him," said his father, Joe Addison. "We just don't want to hear that he's done something like this to somebody else."
The Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office told WCPO 9 News they want to try the suspect as an adult. Addison's family said they agreed with the decision.
"Absolutely, absolutely, you know, if you're willing to commit a crime, where you murder someone and that's what this was, this was a murder, if you're willing to do that, then you need to suffer the consequences of your actions," said Joe Addison.
"I do want him to pay for this, you know, as a Christian, I'm supposed to forgive," said Yeshi Leggesse, Benjamin's mother. "I'm just not there yet. I'm just going to ask God to help me to do so."
Addison's family said he had decided to go out with some friends on March 29. They were watching one of their friends at a boxing event and were going out to celebrate their friend's victory.
"I called him at 10 p.m. because usually he comes home from school," said Yeshi Leggesse. "He said to me, 'Mom we're celebrating, do you mind if I stay out?' And I thought, 'He's 21,' because he keeps telling me, 'I'm 21.'"
"I said, 'Benjamin, if you need a ride home, call me. I can come get you.' He said, 'OK dad I love you.' That's the last thing he said to his mom and me both — 'OK dad I love you,' 'OK mom I love you.' That's how he was," said Joe Addison, reading the last words his son wrote to him in a text message.
His mother described feeling uneasy hours before the shooting happened. Some consider it a mother's intuition, or instinct. She said he had parked his car on Highland Street. He thought he left his headlights on, so he went back to the car with his friend, where they found two guys trying to break into the vehicle, Leggesse said.
When the two asked the man on the driver's side to get out, Leggesse said they didn't see the other man on the passenger side, who then shot her son.
"And all he said was, 'What are you doing in my car?'" Joe Addison said. "We put 21 years of love and effort and time and care everything into raising him to be the man that he is and for that to end because of some senseless act of violence for nothing."
For 20 minutes first responders performed CPR on Addison, but police said he died at the scene.
"We know he's saved, we know right now he's in heaven, that's the only thing that's keeping us going," said Joe Addison.
WCPO asked the family what their message would be to the 17-year-old suspect.
"Just run away. I don't understand why and I guess that's the question I would ask — Why in the world did you feel the need to have to start randomly shooting at people when you're in the wrong?" said Joe Addison.
He also had a message for the second person allegedly involved in their son's murder.
"I hope that the police find you because even though you didn't pull the trigger, you were involved in this incident that caused the life of our son to be taken from us," added Joe Addison.
Addison's parents said he was close to them, choosing to live at home while attending UC's College of Business.
"Every day he'd come home, hug, kiss, tell us he loved us," said Joe Addison. "It's just a blended family. Yeshi, she's from Ethiopia. I'm from America. She's Black, I'm white. He was the epitome of a perfect blend."
Anyone with information about the shooting is still encouraged to call CPD's Homicide Unit at 513-352-3542.
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