Family speaks out after 19-year-old is shot, killed in Warrensville Heights

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOIO) - A 19-year-old is gunned down in the street and his loved ones say he was left there to die.

Now a family is left with more questions than answers as they mourn the loss of a young man who had a big heart, big dreams, and had never been in trouble with the law.

Loved ones of Christian Collier tell 19 News that it’s believed he was forced to run for his life from a home on Longbrook Avenue in Warrensville Heights.

His mother Bridgett Collier-Calloway says he was shot in the head by a gunman allegedly carrying an AR-15 and left alone bleeding in the street.

Collier would die hours later at the hospital.

Collier-Calloway couldn’t fight back the tears saying her son was quiet, loved everyone and never ran the streets, “They shot my baby and left him in the street. Nobody was there with him when he died. He was such a good boy. He didn’t have a violent bone in his body. He had never been in no trouble.”

The victim’s oldest sister, Roniece Rice, says he was ecstatic about the news that he was going to be an uncle again.

Rice was just 14 when her brother was born, but she helped her mother raise him.

Through tear-filled eyes she couldn’t hide her pain, “He didn’t even get a chance to become an adult yet. He just got his driver’s license and just graduated from high school.”

His other sister, Diamond Collier, says she wishes she had pushed her brother to join the National Guard right after high school because maybe he could have escaped the violence plaguing the streets. “I just wish, I just wish I was there to hold him. To make him feel like he wasn’t there alone. The person who shot him chased and shot someone who was unarmed and was no threat to anyone.”

The family tells 19 News that Warrensville Heights Detectives do have a suspect, but it’s unclear if an arrest has been made at this point.

Warrensville Heights Detectives said on Wednesday they were working on a statement and would send it by email, but 19 News continues to wait on the latest from police.