Last month, 14-year-old Rakeem Blair Jr. was killed near a vacant home in East Price Hill. Problems at the property had been known about for months, but trespassers remained even after the fatal shooting, officials said.
Second Avenue, a Tampa-based company, bought its portfolio of single-family homes in Cincinnati about three years ago. It still owns about 100 properties in the city. In 2025, the city sued the company, claiming its properties were a public nuisance and they were failing to manage them properly.
Then on Aug. 18, Rakeen was fatally shot near at the house in the 3700 block of Warsaw Avenue.
Representatives from both the city's law department and Second Avenue spoke to Cincinnati City Council's public safety and quality of life committee.
Both tried to explain whythe house, known by neighbors as a haven for criminal activity, wasn't dealt with sooner.
"It shouldn't take the death of a 14-year-old to get to this level," Councilwoman Anna Albi said.
What the law department says
The problems at the Warsaw Avenue house were known about before the shooting by both the city and the property company.
Mark Manning with the city's law department gave a timeline of events:
- Aug. 14: Following a complaint, an police officer went to the home and saw the house was unsecured and people were coming and going. Second Avenue told the city in response to this complaint that it had secured the property on June 20 and had a pending eviction.
- Aug. 18: Rakeem was shot at the property.
- Aug. 19: City officials and Second Avenue representatives visited the home. The city issued a vacate order.
- Aug. 21: Cincinnati police found trespassers at the property.
- Aug. 25 and 26: The house was boarded up.
- Aug. 28: More trespassers were found at the house and told to leave.
- Aug. 31: The eviction order was executed.
When councilmembers asked why the people at the house were not just kicked out, Manning explained that while there are no "squatter's rights" in Ohio, the challenging part is determining who are a squatters.
When the officer witnessed the people entering and leaving the house, Manning said "we did not have a vacate order and there was a pending eviction so there was no ability to enforce trespass at that time."
What the property owners say
David Stewart, the field representative for Second Avenue in Cincinnati, said he knew about the problems at the house and the company was taking action, but there were limits to what they could do.
Stewart said the house was occupied until May of this year, and then they made improvements to it. It was in "beautiful condition," he said. Then the trespasser came in. He said Second Avenue entered evictions proceedings twice for the property over the summer.
"By August, they had destroyed the place," he said. "We didn't like it either. We couldn't go on the property. It wasn't safe. If we hired anyone to go there and pick it up, could they have been killed also? We didn't like it either. We paid fines because of it, and there was nothing we could do about it."
He said Second Avenue plans to work with the police directly to deal with trespasser in the future instead of the court system.
Of the 100 properties Second Avenue owns, only the house in the 3700 block of Warsaw is vacant, according to Stewart. He said that 60 of the properties had been inspected recently and more than half have passed perfectly.
Albi pushed back on the characterization that the company is a good steward of their properties, saying the city's law department only goes after the worst of the worst.
Second Avenue's lawyers said they would like to come back to the City Council in the future to give them a full accounting of what they have done to address problems and give the councilmembers more context.
What's next?
Stewart said the house on Warsaw is secure and bordered up and that both the inside and outside have been cleaned up. He said they have been trying to keep up with the graffiti on the outside of the house.
"We're a little nervous about going in there and doing work on it," he said. "It will remain bordered up until it's ready to rent."
The lawsuit and related inspections will continue.
A 16-year-old with a history of contact with child protective services has been arrested and charged with murder in the killing of Rakeem. Prosecutors are seeking to try the teen as an adult.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: City, owners talk problems to cleaning up home prior to teen's killing
