Robert Letson was shot during an attempted robbery on Cleveland’s west side in the early morning of April 24, 1987. Letson had been waiting in his car at 7635 Lorain Road after driving two women home from Bev’s Bar when a person approached the vehicle, demanded money, then shot him once. Letson staggered to an upstairs apartment and told witnesses he had been shot; Patricia White and another witness saw the assailant flee toward a house at 7732 Lorain Road.

Letson was taken to St. John’s Hospital with severe abdominal wounds. Surgery removed his gallbladder and tried to repair intestinal and liver damage, but continued bleeding and a subsequent cardiac arrest caused irreversible brain injury. He died on May 12, 1987, more than two weeks after the shooting. Ballistics matched the projectile to either a .38- or .357-caliber firearm.

Investigators initially hit dead ends: a car used by Letson’s roommate was washed before full forensic work, and early suspects were eliminated. In December 1995 a woman said her son had admitted the shooting soon after it occurred; other witnesses later testified that the same man had confessed. The defendant was indicted and later convicted; he received a 30-year sentence.

If anyone knew Letson, saw the car or the area on Lorain Road that night, or has information about the people who fled toward 7732 Lorain Road, please share what is known.