Robert Willis, 28, of North Ridgeville, was shot and later died at Mercy Health Lorain after a July 29, 2025 meeting in Lorain that investigators say began as a planned drug deal and became a robbery. The shooting happened about 9 p.m. in the parking lot of the Little Lighthouse Learning Center at 1715 Meister Road. Wounded behind the wheel, Willis pressed the accelerator; the car rolled down the street, struck a fence and a shed, and deputies found him and took him to the hospital where he died.

Detectives say video and witness leads indicate a .380-caliber handgun was used and that the gunman brandished the weapon as Willis tried to drive away. Investigators recovered the $110 that was meant to change hands in the car. A Lorain County grand jury later indicted 21-year-old Jomar Perez of Lorain on multiple counts including murder, and 23-year-old Jacob T. Smith of Grafton on complicity charges related to the same incident.

Does anyone who was in that area on the evening of July 29, 2025, have information about the meeting in the Meister Road parking lot?