Deon Stallings, a 37-year-old Black man, was killed in the predawn quiet of October 18, 2025, after gunfire erupted outside the Sunoco at 7025 Fleet Avenue in Cleveland’s Slavic Village. Police rushed to the scene around 1:15 a.m. after ShotSpotter alerts signaled a barrage of rounds; they found four men down, two of them beyond help. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner later identified the deceased as Stallings and 46-year-old Bruce Charles Singleton, while two other men, ages 31 and 34,
were rushed to MetroHealth in critical condition.
What unfolded appears to have begun as an argument among several people outside the gas station, sour tempers turning to muzzle flashes in a matter of moments. Detectives marked the parking lot with up to 43 evidence markers, recovered at least two firearms, and documented a car shredded by bullets—physical echoes of the chaos that cut the night and left families waking to unthinkable news. Stallings was pronounced dead at the scene, his name added to the city’s ledger of lives taken by gun violence that morning.
Authorities say the investigation remains active. Detectives are reviewing video, canvassing witnesses, and asking anyone who was near East 71st and Fleet to come forward with what they saw or heard. As of the most recent updates, police had not announced any arrests or publicly identified suspects, leaving the case hinging on evidence still being processed and tips the community may yet provide.
In the days that followed, funeral notices began to circulate with Stallings’ full name—Deon Lindsey Stallings—and the dates that now frame his life, August 21, 1988 to October 18, 2025. Loved ones prepared to gather at Cummings & Davis Funeral Home to mourn him, even as the homicide investigation pressed on, a parallel ritual of grief and search for answers moving through Cleveland at the same time.
