71 arrested in Cleveland protests
Violence reported after police officer acquitted in 2 deaths
CLEVELAND — The streets returned to calm Sunday after Cleveland police arrested dozens of demonstrators overnight when protests grew increasingly aggressive in the wake of a patrolman’s acquittal in the deaths of two unarmed black suspects.
In total, 71 people were arrested, including several who turned their anger toward bystanders in downtown Cleveland, Police Chief Calvin Williams said.
Someone picked up a restaurant sign and hit a patron in the head, and other protesters used pepper spray on passers- by and restaurant patrons sitting at outdoor cafes.
Williams said at a news conference Sunday that the protesters were arrested mostly on charges of aggravated rioting and obstruction of justice. Those arrested include 39 males, 16 females and a number of minors, he said.
Mayor Frank Jackson thanked the vast majority of protesters who remained peaceful and respectful as they voiced their frustration with Saturday’s verdict.
Officer Michael Brelo, 31, faces administrative charges while remaining suspended without pay after he was found innocent on two counts of voluntary manslaughter, but he no longer faces the prospect of prison.
Brelo and 12 other officers fired 137 shots at a car with Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams inside it Nov. 29, 2012.
The shooting occurred at the end of a 22- mile chase involving more than 100 Cleveland police officers and 60 cruisers after Russell’s Chevy Malibu backfired while speeding past police headquarters.
During the chase, an officer reported that he thought he’d seen Williams with a gun.
At the end, police mistook police gunfire for shots from Russell’s car.
Brelo fired 49 of those shots that night, but it was the final 15 fired into the windshield while he stood
on the hood of Russell’s car that led to his indictment and a four- week trial.
He faced up to 22 years in prison if convicted on both counts.
The shooting helped prompt an investigation by the U. S. Department of Justice that concluded Cleveland police had engaged in a pattern and practice of excessive use of force and violations of people’s civil rights.
Jackson said protesters were encouraged to continue expressing their opinions as long as they stayed peaceful. Williams said police only moved in Saturday when things got violent and people refused to disperse.
Alicia Kirkman, 47, of Cleveland, said she joined the march in honor of her son, killed in a police shooting eight years ago.
“I’m just so mad we never get justice from any of the police killings,” said Kirkman, who said she settled with the city after her son’s death but no charges were filed.
Two other high- profile police- involved deaths still hang over the city.
Prosecutors have not yet said whether they will bring criminal charges against a police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice, 12, who was playing with a replica gun near a playground, and against the officer who restrained Tanisha Anderson, 37. Anderson, who suffered from bipolar disorder and heart disease, died after she was restrained face down on the pavement. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.
Tamir and Anderson, like the two motorists whose deaths were at the center of Saturday’s verdict, were black.
Walter Madison, an attorney for Tamir’s family, said he respected the judge’s legal analysis in acquitting Brelo, but wondered if the prosecutor’s office would have better served justice by pursuing some other charge, such as conspiracy.
The judge’s decision to acquit Brelo focused on which shots killed Russell, 43, and Williams, 30, two homeless drug addicts with a long history of mental illness.
Four of the 23 gunshot wounds to Russell and seven of Williams’ 24 wounds were believed to have been fatal.
Judge John O’Donnell said in his 35- page verdict that while testimony showed Brelo fired some of the fatal shots, other officers fired kill shots as well.
A grand jury charged five police supervisors with misdemeanor dereliction of duty for failing to control the chase.
All five have pleaded innocent and no trial date has been set.
On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio credited city leaders with helping to maintain calm and said the people of Cleveland “should be so proud” of how they have handled themselves.
Kasich said his administration was working to carry out the recommendations of a state task force on community policing, which include creating a statewide policy on the use of lethal force and a focus on recruiting police officers from minority- group communities.