On the afternoon of June 28, 2025, Janae Winnick, 46, a woman from Cleveland, was shot while seated in a vehicle on the 6700 block of Schaefer Avenue on the city’s East Side. Police were called just after 3:37 p.m. to reports of multiple people shot; Janae Winnick, 46, was pronounced dead at the scene, and a 15-year-old girl riding with her was struck in the leg and taken to a hospital. The quiet residential stretch sits in the St.
Clair–Superior area, where neighbors described a burst of gunfire that shattered a summer Saturday and drew cruisers, ambulances, and crime-scene tape around the block.
Within days, authorities publicly identified the victim as Janae Winnick, 46, confirming her death in the shooting that also wounded the teenager. The identification came through the medical examiner, and local coverage centered on the suddenness of the violence and the presence of the young passenger who survived. Memorial pages soon noted her name and age, with mourners lighting digital candles and sharing brief remembrances of the woman they lost.
Detectives from the homicide unit opened an investigation, canvassing the Schaefer Avenue corridor where the vehicle, pocked by gunfire, became the focal point of their work. As of the initial reports, police had not announced any arrests, nor had they publicly identified a suspect or suspects, leaving the questions of motive and responsibility unresolved while the teenager recovered.
In the weeks that followed, the case remained under investigation, with no public indication of charges. Coverage emphasized the basic contours of the crime—Janae Winnick, 46, killed; a 15-year-old girl injured; a Saturday afternoon turned tragic—while friends and family were left to reckon with the loss and the unanswered details that lingered over Schaefer Avenue.
