In the quiet, unassuming streets of East Cleveland, a domestic dispute spiraled into a night of unimaginable tragedy on Thursday, August 7, 2025, leaving a community reeling and its police force battered but resolute. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office has confirmed the identities of the two victims fatally shot in a harrowing incident: 82-year-old Charles Roscoe, a grandfather whose life spanned decades of wisdom, and 22-year-old Erik Sharp, a young man in the prime of his youth. The alleged perpetrator, 24-year-old Aaron Sharp, a relative of the victims, now faces the weight of justice as he awaits arraignment on charges of aggravated murder and felonious assault.
The chaos unfolded around 11 p.m. on the 1900 block of North Taylor Road, where East Cleveland police responded to reports of a heated family argument. What began as a routine call quickly escalated into a nightmare. According to Mayor Lateek Shabazz, Aaron Sharp, armed and volatile, allegedly gunned down his own brother, Erik Sharp, and their maternal grandfather, Charles Roscoe, inside a home on North Taylor Road. The brutality of the act left both victims dead, their lives extinguished in a moment of senseless violence.
As officers arrived to confront the unfolding crisis, the suspect turned his rage on them. Officer Joshua Durda, a seasoned four-year veteran of the East Cleveland Police Department, was the first to face the gunfire. Shot in the leg while approaching the scene, Durda was rushed to University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, where he remains, facing surgery and a challenging recovery. His courage in the line of duty, honed through prior service with the Wakeman, Put-in-Bay, and Cleveland State University police departments, underscores the risks officers face daily.
Moments later, the violence spilled beyond the initial scene. A ShotSpotter alert, triggered by gunfire just a block away on Euclid Avenue, drew police to the Town House Motel. There, Officer Brandon Hernandez, a dedicated officer with one year on the East Cleveland force and part-time service with the Geneva-on-the-Lake Police Department, was ambushed. Shot in the buttocks, Hernandez endured a terrifying ordeal but was released from the hospital by Friday, August 8, to recover at home. His chief in Geneva-on-the-Lake, Jonathan Roberts, praised him as a “solid young officer,” a sentiment echoed by a community grateful for his survival.
The suspect, Aaron Sharp, fled into the night, sparking a multi-agency manhunt that gripped East Cleveland. Drones buzzed overhead, SWAT teams locked down a perimeter, and nearly 40 members of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Northeast Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force joined the effort. By 8:30 a.m. on Friday, August 8, Sharp was apprehended inside a Sheldon Avenue residence near Shaw High School, ending a tense standoff captured on video by local news crews. Court records reveal Sharp’s prior conviction for drug-related offenses in 2023, but nothing in his past hinted at the scale of this tragedy.
Mayor Shabazz, standing before a shaken city, described the incident as a stark reminder of the dangers police face. “This is a stark reminder of the risks our officers face every day,” echoed Police Chief Reginald Holcomb, commending the bravery of Durda and Hernandez. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office has stepped in to assist East Cleveland’s strained police force, which also reported two additional officers injured during the response, though they are recovering at home.
The community, too, feels the weight of this loss. Clifford Wilson, a long-time East Cleveland resident, voiced a collective exhaustion with the violence plaguing the area. “I want the area cleaned up,” he told reporters, his words heavy with frustration. “I definitely don’t want to see police getting shot. I definitely don’t want to see no one in this area getting shot.”
As Aaron Sharp prepares to face arraignment on Monday, August 11, 2025, in East Cleveland court, the city grapples with grief and questions. The lives of Charles Roscoe and Erik Sharp, bound by family and torn apart by violence, leave an indelible mark on a community searching for answers. Yet, amidst the sorrow, the resilience of Officers Durda and Hernandez, and the unity of a city determined to heal, shine as beacons of hope in a dark chapter. East Cleveland stands together, mourning its losses but resolute in its pursuit of justice.
