Adarus Black, 19, of Lakemore, is accused of shooting Na’Kia Crawford as she sat in a car on Akron’s North Side in June 2020.
Crawford was a recent North High School graduate who was running errands with her grandmother Sunday when someone pulled up behind her at a red light in a black sports car, police said. The car pulled up to the driver’s side, and a person or people in the car shot at Crawford, then drove away.
Paramedics brought Crawford to Summa Akron City Hospital, where she died. Crawford’s grandmother was not hurt in the shooting.. Akron-area leaders have condemned the killing, including Mayor Dan Horrigan, State Rep. Emilia Sykes and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan. Summa Health CEO Dr. Cliff Deveny made a personal donation of $25,000 to Summit County Crimestoppers’ reward fund to help solve the case.
The U.S. Marshals Service says investigators followed leads all over Ohio and into Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee in searching for Black. They recently learned he was living in Atlanta under a fake name. Members of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force identified Black as he left an apartment Tuesday in Atlanta. A SWAT unit conducted a traffic stop and Black was arrested. At the time of his arrest, Black was in possession of an AR-type rifle, authorities say.“Members of the task force and the Akron Police Department never gave up on this case,” U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said in a statement. “They knew that this suspect couldn’t hide forever and we knew we would have him in custody.