Police shoot Pennsylvania fugitive at Cleveland Walmart

CLEVELAND — Three officers working for a fugitive task force under the command of the U.S. Marshals in Cleveland shot a 31-year-old Pennsylvania man at the popular Steelyard Commons shopping center Friday, investigators said.

Cleveland police identified the man who suffered the non-life-threatening gunshot wound as Dwayne Taylor, a fugitive from Harrisburg wanted for violating terms of his parole on a burglary conviction, according to a news release hours after the shooting.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said the three officers who fired their weapons were a Cleveland police officer, Euclid police officer and an officer with the United States Marshals Service. The department did not release the names of the officers or how many shots they fired at Taylor.

Police said Taylor pointed a gun at task force officers when they swarmed his Nissan

SUV to arrest him. Multiple bullet holes were visible in the SUV’s windshield as police investigated the shooting.

The shooting happened around noon in the Walmart parking lot. Investigators cordoned off a significant portion of the parking lot with yellow and red crime-scene tape for several hours. Investigators

placed yellow evidence markers on the ground to note where bullet casings fell.

The U.S. Marshals had tracked Taylor from Pennsylvania to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he pulled a gun and pointed it at officers before eluding arrest on Dec. 4, the release said. Officers tracked Taylor as he traversed the country to Cleveland,

and zeroed in on him in the Walmart parking lot.

Cleveland police Chief Calvin Williams said the man shot Friday pulled out a gun, but he and Elliott did not answer when a reporter asked whether the wanted man fired any shots during the confrontation.

Police collected a gun at the scene, the release said.