Rain or shine, Keep Akron Beautiful, along with more than 250 volunteers, was all in for the annual Earth Day Clean Up at Summit Lake! 

"It was awesome to have that many people come out, especially because it was cold and rainy," Community Outreach and Program Manager Johanna Barnowski told our 1590 WAKR newsroom of the event. 

On Saturday alone, Barnowski tells us that as a group they collected roughly 3.31 tons of trash, and pulled 18 tires from Summit Lake! 

"Old bikes that were rotted, some pipes, tires, and all kinds of things," Barnowski elaborated, giving us an idea as to just some of the items the group pulled from the lake. "This year, I'm actually happy to say that we didn't have anything that crazy pulled out of the lake, considering in the past we've had a loaded gun..." 

There is still time to participate in Clean Up Akron Month! You have until Friday, April 26th, to sign up yourself or a group to clean up a piece of Akron. See more KeepAkronBeautiful.org. 

Update: The Summit County Sheriff's Office is reporting that missing 2-year-old Kaven Fisher was found safe. 

According to Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland, Kaven was asleep inside of a car parked in the neighbor's garage. 

As of a 9 a.m. briefing, Inspector Holland said that Kaven was being checked out, but appears to be OK. 

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Summit County Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland provided an update to the media early in the 8 a.m. hour Monday, saying that well over one hundred law enforcement and fire personnel are involved in the search for missing 2-year-old Kaven Fisher. 

In his briefing, Inspector Holland suggested that area residents assist law enforcement by searching their own properties, including inside their own homes, noting that there have been cases where a child has gotten into a home without the homeowner knowing. 

As of the 8 a.m. press briefing, Inspector Holland said that the search radius was about a mile, but will expand beyond that as the morning goes on. 

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The Summit County Sheriff's Office is reporting a missing 2-year-old autistic boy from the City of Green, near Clinton, OH.

Reports from Channel 8 News are that Kaven Fisher went to bed at his home about 9:30 Sunday night.

His parents called 911 when they checked his room about 1:30 this morning and he was not in his room and that a door to the home was open. Kaven was reportedly last wearing a gray shirt and red shorts. Kaven is listed at 55 pounds, about 43 inches tall, black hair, and brown eyes.

According to the press release from the Sheriff's Office, in addition to having autism, Kaven is non-verbal. 

The search is ongoing, reportedly in the area of the Nimisila Reservoir near Killinger and Chistman Roads.  

Anyone with information is asked to call the Summit County Sheriff's Office at 330-643-2181. 

The Summit County Sheriff's Office is investigating a deadly crash along East Turkeyfoot Lake Road in the City of Green Thursday morning. 

According to the Sheriff's report, around 7:30 a.m., a 71-year-old man driving a yellow Corvette eastbound on East Turkeyfoot collided with a tractor trailer that was waiting to turn into a gas station, and then hit another car. 

The driver of the Corvette, a 71-year-old resident of Green, was transported to Summa Akron City Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Neither the driver of the truck nor the driver of the Civic were injured. 

East Turkeyfoot Lake Road was closed for roughly three hours after the accident Thursday morning. 

Investigators with the Sheriff's Office do not suspect that alcohol played a factor in the accident. 

An Akron Police cruiser that was escorting a funeral procession along Darrow Road, just a block from the Newcomer Funeral Home, was hit by another driver, according to police.

The officer had to be extracted from the cruiser, and was taken to Akron City Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The other driver, a 21-year-old woman, had minor injuries, and was cited for several violations, including driving under a suspended license.

See the full release from the Akron Police Department below: 

(APD) Accident involving cruiser doing a funeral escort:

Shortly before 2:00pm this afternoon, an officer in a marked cruiser was doing a funeral escort for the Newcomer Funeral Home, located at 131 North Canton Road.  As the procession drove north bound on Darrow Road, about a block north of the funeral home, the cruiser was struck by a Chevy Malibu driven by a 21 year old female from Dudley Street in Akron.  The officer was confined, due to the damage of the cruiser.  The officer was removed from the cruiser and transported to Akron City Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The 21 year old female driver and her passenger where transported to Cleveland Clinic Akron General with non-life threatening injuries.  The driver was cited for left turn approaching traffic, driving on a suspended driver’s license, and right of way for a funeral procession.  The driver also had a warrant for driving on s suspended license from Copley Police Department.

(Summit County Sheriff's Office) In February of this year the Summit County Sheriff’s Office responded to a breaking and entering that occurred at a storage facility in the City of Green. An enclosed trailer (valued at over ten thousand dollars) had been stolen and this crime mirrored other crimes that had been occurring in different areas of Summit County.

Sheriff’s detectives began their investigation (assisted by information provided from Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Jones) and soon developed suspects with Detectives Jason Kline and Brian Breeden working various night and day hours to confirm the information they had received. Soon they developed suspects involved in several burglaries and thefts. The property taken in these incidents usually involved vehicles, boats, trailers and construction equipment, including a heavy duty Earth Mover, snow plows and power tools.

On April 3, 2019, suspect Jerry Stubblefield, 48, of Hunter Avenue, Munroe Falls, Ohio, was arrested and charged with 3 counts of Breaking and Entering, 5 Counts of Felony Theft, and Possession of Drugs-Methamphetamine. Suspect Jeremy Harnack, 39, of Gage Street in Akron, was arrested and charged with 3 Counts of Breaking and Entering and 3 Counts of Felony Theft. Suspect Mark Harkless, 52, of The Brooklands, Akron, was charged one count of Felony Theft and all have been booked into the Summit County Jail. Additional charges will also be addressed at Grand Jury.

Over one hundred thousand dollars worth of stolen property has been recovered over the past several weeks, with cases being cleared in several areas of the county. Sheriff Barry credits his deputies and entire detective bureau, along with the assistance provided by the Akron, Boston Heights, and Tallmadge Police Departments and the Portage County Sheriff’s Office.

CITY OF AKRON: Today (Monday), Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan and Health Commissioner Donna Skoda joined together with community partners to mark the public release of Akron’s Youth Violence Prevention Strategic Plan.  The plan—which was developed after more than two years of research, data collection and community conversations with neighborhood stakeholders—calls for a 20%+ reduction in youth violent crime in Akron by 2023. The Youth Violence Prevention Steering Committee is comprised of leaders from government, public health, recreation, education, law enforcement, corrections, and non-profit community organizations.                           

“We cannot allow violent crime among our youth to continue to devastate lives, families and neighborhoods,” Mayor Horrigan said. “Our young people are in crisis.  While we have dedicated non-profits, advocates, and law enforcement agencies in our community, we must do more to coordinate all our efforts around specific, shared goals and action steps if we are going to make real progress.” 

The Youth Violence Prevention Strategic Plan targets older youth, ages 15 to 24. The plan is intended to remedy the weaknesses in Akron’s continuum of comprehensive services for all at-risk youth by plugging the service gaps for youth in the targeted age range.

The Plan identifies key risk factors that lead youth to commit acts of violence, along with important protective factors that can diminish the likelihood of violent activity.  These findings were used, along with crime statistics and mapping, to develop specific action steps related to the following eight Recommended Approaches:

• Mentoring
• Recreation and Discretionary Time
• Re-entry Support
• Police-Youth Relations
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse Supports and Treatment
• Gun Access Reduction
• Community Awareness and Involvement
• Capacity and Infrastructure Development

Each approach will require the commitment of various community partners. Summit County Public Health will be the lead agency on coordinating implementation of the plan among all the partners.

Health Commissioner Donna Skoda says, “Youth violence is a public health issue. It comes in all forms, from bullying, to assault, to gun violence. It deeply affects the mental, emotional and physical health of our youth, causing a wide variety of issues that Summit County Public Health works to combat every day. Many organizations and community groups have a hand in reducing youth violence, and this strategic plan offers us a chance for true and meaningful coordination. This will be a living document, one that can be updated and adjusted to best fit the needs of the community, as our work progresses.”

The City of Akron will be leading the charge on several approaches, including reducing access to guns, increasing positive recreational opportunities, and enhancing police youth relations and community awareness

“It is essential that we continue to get guns off our streets, provide neighborhood services like Midnight Basketball, and build trust between our youth and law enforcement by creating opportunities for positive interaction and open dialogue,” Mayor Horrigan continued. “As the African proverb states, ‘it takes a village to save a child.’ Likewise, it will take our entire community to save our children from heading down a path of violence. Through true coordination and real action, I believe we can accomplish a meaningful reduction in violent crime and provide Akron’s next generation with the tools and opportunities to thrive.”

A full copy of the Youth Violence Prevention Strategic Plan—including Steering Committee and Workgroup members, data graphs and maps, and a list of resources currently serving local youth—can be found at www.akronohio.gov/preventyouthviolence.

Kevin Cook of Akron has been charged with felonious assault after police say he fired several shots at two women outside of the Northside Tavern on North Howard Street Friday night. 

According to reports, the altercation started inside of the bar and then spilled out into the parking lot. The two women tell police that Cook would not let them leave and then chased them outside. 

One of the victims tells police that as she was trying to drive away, Cook fired several shots, some that hit her car. She then got out of the car and ran away. 

Cook was arrested late Sunday night at his Kenmore home, and is currently being held in the Summit County Jail on several charges, including felonious assault.

Akron Police are looking for two, rather brazen theives, who stole an ATM from the lobby of the Courtyard Marriott at 41 Furnace Street downtown Sunday night.

The masked men ordered a hotel employee to lay down on the ground, then rolled the ATM out the front door and into an navy blue older model Jeep.

The employee didn't quite follow the thieves' direction, and immediately called 911. Too late, though, as the robbers had already driven off by the time police arrived. 

Anyone with information is asked to call Akron Police or the Summit County Crimestoppers at 330-434-COPS.

Update: Police say that Ellie Ludwig was found safe late Wednesday night along with her bilogical mother Melissa, who does not have custody of the child. 

The girl and Melissa Ludwig were in Akron, and located by Akron Police. 

No further details have been released. 

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Barberton Police are asking for help finding missing 3-year-old Ellie Ludwig, who is believed to have been taken by her bilogical mother, 38-year-old Melissa Ludwig. She was last seen in the area of 7th Street North West.

Melissa Ludwig (pictured below), who has a last known address in California, is described as 5-feet-5-inches tall, about 140 pounds, with bleach blonde hair with pink and purple stripes, and brown eyes.

Anyone with information is asked to call Baberton Police.

Akron's infant mortality rate has decreased by nearly 9 percent since 2016, according to a data revealed at Mayor Dan Horrigan's third annual Health Equity Summit Tuesday.

The group Full Term First Birthday, created in 2017 at the direction of the mayor, has released details of their three-year strategic plan to improve those numbers even more, through focus on social influences on health and better coordinating the agendas of health agencies and community organizations.

See the full plan at AkronOhio.gov.