Stow police have filed a murder charge against the boyfriend of a 36-year-old woman found shot to death inside a Stow home on Oct. 28, according to a press release from the Stow Police Department reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Pierre Wade, 38, was arrested on a felony murder charge in connection with the shooting death of Larretta Allison, according to the Stow Police Department press release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. Police described Wade as Allison’s boyfriend and said he had been living at the same address as Allison, according to the release.
Police said Wade was located in Cleveland by members of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office, which initially took him into custody on an unrelated failure-to-appear warrant, according to the press release reported by the Beacon Journal. A handgun was found in Wade’s vehicle, according to the news release.
Wade will appear in Stow Municipal Court at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 2, on the murder charge, according to the Beacon Journal. Stow Municipal Court records show Wade was arrested in July for driving under suspension and did not appear for court, prompting a warrant, and records show Wade was living in Akron at the time of the July arrest, the Beacon Journal reported.
Officers were called to a home in the 4000 block of Vira Road around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 to assist a landlord with an eviction process for a tenant, Stow Police Chief Heather Prusha said in a previous interview with the Akron Beacon Journal. The tenant’s relatives came to the home after officers arrived, concerned that they had not been able to get in touch with their loved one who lived there, according to that interview.
Officers discovered Allison had been shot to death once they entered the home. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:52 p.m., according to the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. Prusha told the Beacon Journal she had been deceased for a couple of days. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is assisting in the investigation, according to the Beacon Journal.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed comes from the Stow Police Department’s press release and the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office, both as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal: Allison was found dead on Oct. 28, Wade has been charged with felony murder and taken into custody in Cleveland, and a handgun was found in his vehicle. What has not been announced is a motive, and a charge is an allegation — Wade has not been convicted, and his first court appearance is still ahead.
In a GoFundMe created by one of Allison’s family members, the family wrote that “her life was tragically cut short in an act of domestic violence involving the person who was supposed to love and protect her,” the Akron Beacon Journal reported. She leaves behind two young children, and the family is asking the community for donations toward a $15,000 goal for her funeral expenses and her children, according to the Beacon Journal.
The case now moves from Stow to the courtroom, in a week when Akron-area roads and sports are also drawing attention — overnight I-77 and Central Interchange closures start Monday in Akron, and the community is also marking the career of Akron great Evan Bush, who will retire after the Crew’s 2026 season.
For Stow, the discovery on Vira Road began as a landlord’s eviction assistance call, not a homicide call, according to Chief Prusha’s previous interview with the Akron Beacon Journal — officers entered the home with the landlord’s process underway and the family’s concern already raised, and found Allison inside. That sequence, reported by the Beacon Journal from the chief’s interview, is why the medical examiner’s finding that she had been deceased for a couple of days matters to the timeline investigators are now building.
What happens next is Wade’s appearance in Stow Municipal Court at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 2, on the murder charge, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation continues assisting Stow police in the investigation.
Photo: Raymond Wambsgans, CC BY-SA