Thread: 137 police shots, 2 dead: Many questions in Ohio

137 police shots, 2 dead: Many questions in Ohio

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN
Associated Press
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN The Associated Press
Last modified: 2012-12-16T16:41:02Z
Published: Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 - 8:40 am

CLEVELAND -- A chase that ended with 13 officers firing 137 rounds, killing two people, began with a pop - perhaps a gunshot or backfire from a car speeding past police headquarters.

For the next 25 minutes late in the night of Nov. 29, the car crisscrossed Cleveland tailed by officers, headed along Interstate 90 and wound up near the back entrance of a school in East Cleveland, where police opened fire.

Police don't know why the driver, Timothy Russell, 43, refused to stop. Russell had a criminal record including convictions for receiving stolen property and robbery.

His passenger, Malissa Williams, 30, had convictions for drug-related charges and attempted abduction.

The fallout from their deaths has cast the Cleveland police department in an uneasy light amid community complaints about what's been called a racially motivated execution of two people with no evidence they were armed.

The state took over the case and families for both victims and civil-rights groups have demanded a federal investigation. They accuse officers of alleged civil rights violations in the pursuit and gunfire barrage.

"You just can't help but wonder how so many officers were able to shoot so many bullets at these two people in this vehicle," said Paul Cristallo, an attorney representing Russell's family.

Protesters yelled "execution" at a community meeting called by Mayor Frank Jackson to quell rising tensions. The city tried to defuse the outrage by reaching out to federal officials for help. There was no immediate federal decision to intervene.

The officers involved in the shooting have been assigned to desk duties, which is standard procedure after a shooting. They want to avoid talking to the media while subject to the state and internal investigations, their union president said.

The scene of the deaths has turned into a memorial, with small vigil candles arranged in the shape of a heart and the number 137 and stuffed animals piled together with a frost-encrusted poinsettia.

The chase began about 10:30 p.m. when an officer thought he heard a gunshot from a car speeding by the police and courts complex in downtown Cleveland and jumped into his patrol car, made a U-turn and radioed for help.

The chase went through crowded residential neighborhoods, then reversed course, headed east onto busy I-90 and through parts of Cleveland and eventually East Cleveland, ending with the car blocked in the rear of a school.

By police accounts, at least 30 patrol cars were involved in the chase, including Cleveland and East Cleveland police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers.
As the chase ended along hillside driveways heading to the school in John D. Rockefeller's old neighborhood, Russell allegedly rammed a patrol car and drove toward an officer on foot. Then the gunfire erupted: 137 rounds, Russell shot 23 times and Williams 24 times and their car pockmarked.

Jeff Follmer, president of the police union, defended the officers' actions and said officers used force to confront a driver using his vehicle as a potentially deadly weapon.

That was an acceptable police response, said David Klinger, a former Los Angeles and Redmond, Wash., patrolman who teaches criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

"Police officers are authorized to use deadly force to protect themselves and others from great bodily injury or death," he said. "I don't know about you, but I'm not going to stand there and let somebody run me over."

While the driver may have endangered officers, Klinger questioned why the passenger was shot two dozen times, though he wondered whether officers missed while aiming at the driver.

Follmer said some officers in the chase believed both the driver and passenger were armed, and police radio chatter had numerous references warning about a weapon or gunfire from the fleeing car. "I guess he's waving a gun out the window pointing at the officers," one radio dispatch said.

But no weapon or shell casings were found in the fleeing car and the chase route was searched for any trace.

In a well-integrated police force, the makeup of the officers who fired raised the issue of race: 12 are white and one Hispanic. Both victims were black.

The police union president said race wasn't an issue and said the racial makeup of the pursuing officers was random.

But the NAACP called the shootings unacceptable and avoidable and called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio went further, calling for a special prosecutor without ties to the northeast Ohio law enforcement community. The ACLU also asked the attorney general to remove East Cleveland police and the sheriff's department from the state probe because they were involved in the chase.

Cristallo said people who are part of Cleveland's black community are angry. "The people who live in the inner city in Cleveland, the black people in this community, feel that this was an assault on the whole community," he said.

Complaints about the relationship between police and Cleveland's black residents date back to the discovery of the bodies of several black women in a home in an impoverished neighborhood east of downtown in 2009. The man who lived in the home was sentenced to death last year in the killings of 11 women.

That case shed light on residents' complaints that reports of missing black women involved in drugs and prostitution were ignored, tarnishing the image of police.
"This most recent shooting is only the latest in a long line of incidents in Cuyahoga County that have tested people's faith in their public servants," said James Hardiman, a veteran civil-rights attorney and legal director of the ACLU of Ohio.

The shooting deaths have also strained the relationship between officers and city leaders.

The mayor offered an even-handed approach and said police would be backed if they obeyed procedures during the chase but would face unspecified consequences if that wasn't the case.

But the quick response by a glum-looking police Chief Michael McGrath that that the shooting was a tragedy upset rank-and-file officers who felt he spoke too fast without knowing the facts.

"Morale is down. There is no confidence that there's backing with the chief right now," union president Follmer said.

The internal investigation on whether officers followed departmental procedures could take six weeks or more, the chief said. The mayor said the state investigation could take months.

137 police shots, 2 dead: Many questions in Ohio - Wire National News - The Sacramento Bee

Wait a minute - they were fleeing for some reason. If you ask someone to stop and they flee at 90 MPH you have a right to think that they have some reason to flee and are criminals. The police behaved correctly.

http://www.alipac.us/f19/71-arrested...uittal-319812/

5/24/15

I would not want to be jailed because an officer thought he alone heard a gun shot from my car. It seems heavy handed for up to 62 police cars to be involved in one chase. That could be considered endangering the public, IMO. I most certainly have sympathy for the persons shot to death because one individual officer thought that he heard a shot.

Plus, just a couple weeks ago, the FBI admitted to lying on the witness stand in order to obtain convictions. That casts a long shadow for all law enforcement to escape, IMO. Especially when the FBI included in their admission that they had trained police dep'ts. to do as they did when testifying for the prosecution. We know from thousands of cases eye witness testimony is terribly flawed, and apparently the only surviving witnesses are the police. Now I have to question, was there even any noise, let alone a shot to be heard?

P.S. Sure wish people, including law officers, were as concerned about alien crime.

Cleveland Officer Michael Brelo arrested in brawl 4 days after acquittal

By Michael Martinez and Sonia Moghe, CNN
Updated 4:58 PM ET, Wed June 3, 2015


Officer Michael Brelo, 31, was released on his own recognizance.


Story highlights

• Michael Brelo and twin brother Mark are each accused of assault
• Why they fought each other isn't disclosed in police report
• They voluntarily surrender to police

(CNN) Cleveland police Officer Michael Brelo allegedly engaged in a fight with his twin brother during a night of drinking just four days after Brelo's acquittal in a black couple's killing, authorities said.

Michael Brelo and his brother, Mark, each facing assault charges, voluntarily surrendered Wednesday, police said.

Michael Brelo, 31, was released on his own recognizance, and his arraignment was scheduled for June 10, authorities said.

Mark Brelo of Brunswick, Ohio, also was released, police said.

The Brelo brothers and their attorneys couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

The fight between the twins occurred at Michael Brelo's home after 4 a.m. on May 27, according to police in Bay Village, Ohio.




Protests, arrests erupt after judge acquits officer 03:22

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The reason for the fight isn't stated in the police report.

An agitated Mark Brelo "banged" on a woman's home door at 4:28 a.m. and "stated he needed help because of an incident with his brother," the Bay Village police report said.

When police responded, "Mark Brelow was intoxicated and had marks that indicated he had been in a physical confrontation," a police press release said. "Mark Brelo stated he was involved in an incident with his brother, Michael Brelo.

"The investigation determined that both brothers had been drinking at Michael Brelo's residence and had gotten into a physical fight with each other. Both Brelos had observable injuries and admitted to being in a physical altercation. No weapons were involved in the assault," police said.

Bay Village Police Chief Mark Spaetzel said the case was reviewed by the city prosecutor, who couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

"Based on the facts, it was determined that assault charges against both were appropriate and warranted. This determination was made independent of the recent criminal court case involving Michael Brelo," the police chief said in a statement.



Justice Department reviewing Brelo trial01:25

PLAY VIDEO

In 2012, Michael Brelo, who's white, stood on a car and shot the unarmed black occupants 15 times just after officers first riddled it with bullets.

On May 23, Judge John P. O'Donnell found Brelo not guilty of voluntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the 2012 deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams following a 22-mile car chase.

Among the judge's reasons was how Brelo reasonably believed he was in danger. Neither Russell, 43, nor Williams, 30, were armed.
Brelo and 12 other officers fired more than 100 times in eight seconds at the car, authorities said. Brelo remains on unpaid suspension until a police review committee completes its investigation, Cleveland police said.

"The Division of Police is aware of Mr. Brelo's current charge and the integrity control section will monitor this pending case," police Sgt. Ali Pillow said in a statement.

On the day of Brelo's acquittal, the U.S. Justice Department announced it will review the 2012 police shooting of the couple. The acquittal ignited protests in Cleveland.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/03/us/cle...ght/index.html

Moved to Other Topics - Off topic for form.

6 Cleveland police officers fired for actions in fatal 2012 chase

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
Updated 5:14 PM ET, Tue January 26, 2016

(CNN)Six Cleveland police officers have been fired in connection with a November 2012 car chase that ended with officers firing 137 bullets at a car, killing Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, said Detective Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association.

Loomis identified the officers as Wilfredo Diaz, Brian Sabolik, Erin O'Donnell, Michael Farley, Chris Ereg and Michael Brelo.
Brelo, the only officer indicted in the incident, allegedly fired 49 of the shots, including 15 from the hood of the car carrying Russell and Williams. He was acquitted of manslaughter and felonious assault last year.

Police in a tweet Tuesday said six other officers were suspended without pay for up to a month and a 13th officer retired last year.

Loomis, a veteran of 23 years, vowed to get the fired officers' jobs back. There is "no rhyme or reason" to the dismissals, and he said he and other officers are scratching their heads because the firings seem random, as if names were picked out of a hat.

"This is nothing but politics. I have every confidence in the world we're going to get their jobs back. I'm not going to stand for it," Loomis said.

How, he asked, can the six officers be fired when a grand jury opted not to indict 12 of the 13 officers and the sole remaining officer, Brelo, was acquitted by Cuyahoga County Judge John P. O'Donnell?

In his May 2015 decision, O'Donnell ruled that Brelo's use of force was permissible because he had reason to believe he was threatened. And it couldn't be proved that Brelo's shots were the fatal ones, so the judge couldn't issue a guilty verdict on the manslaughter charge, he said.

May 2015: Michael Brelo found not guilty at manslaughter trial02:00


'I don't trust police'

After the verdict, protesters outside the courthouse chanted, "No justice, no peace," a slogan popularized during the Michael Brown protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Eric Garner protests in New York.

The protests were largely peaceful, though at least 71 people were arrested that weekend for offenses including felonious assault, aggravated rioting, unlawful congregation and failure to disperse, police Chief Calvin Williams said.

Russell's and Williams' family members also frowned on the verdict.

"All I know is that I don't trust police no more. No police.

None," Williams' brother, Alfredo Williams, said. "I can't recover from this. ...This verdict isn't real. This verdict is fake."

Loomis informed CNN of the firings as high-ranking police and city officials held a news conference regarding the 22-mile chase. During the chase, there were 46 supervisors on duty, 18 of whom were involved in the pursuit, said police Cmdr. James Chura, calling the incident unprecedented. Of those supervisors, one was terminated, two were demoted and nine were suspended for from three to 30 days.

As for the 105 officers involved in the pursuit, 63 were suspended for between one and 10 days, he said.

"We said we would conduct a fair process, and I believe we have done that," Mayor Frank Jackson said. "They will feel however they feel, but we conducted this in a fair way, with due process."

What happened that night?

The chase started the night of November 29, 2012, when a couple in a car sped away from an undercover officer.

Their engine backfired, sputtering and producing a loud bang in the tailpipe. Prosecutors said officers mistook the noise for gunshots, and a high-speed chase ensued.

Investigators said as many as 62 police cars joined at speeds of up to 100 mph through the streets of Cleveland.

After the chase, Russell rammed a police car in a middle school parking lot, police said.

That's when the bullets started flying.

An investigation revealed 13 police officers fired more than 100 times in eight seconds.

Brelo got out of his police car, climbed atop the hood of Russell's car and "fired at least 15 shots ... downward through the windshield into the victims at close range as he stood on the hood of Mr. Russell's car," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGlinty said.

Brelo told investigators he thought he and his partner were in danger, believing the couple in the car were shooting.

"I've never been so afraid in my life," the former Marine told investigators. "I thought my partner and I would be shot and that we were going to be killed, at which point I drew my weapon and I shot through the windshield at the suspects."

Russell and Williams were both homeless with a history of mental illness and drug use, according to Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigations. Witnesses said they were most likely looking to buy drugs that night. A police officer ran a license plate check of the 1979 Chevy Malibu that Russell was driving.

He had gotten it from a relative, and the check came back clean.

Still, the officer tried to pull him over for a turn signal violation. Russell then sped away.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/26/us/cle...s-fired-chase/