Security ramps up amid search for killer
There was a heavier police presence Monday for Game 2 of the Cleveland Cavaliers-Indiana Pacers NBA playoff series than there was for Saturday’s Game 1.
Police officers wandered through the fan zone in Gateway Plaza between Quicken Loans Arena and Progressive Field as fans waited to enter. More than that, there was a significant presence in the arena as local and federal law enforcement continued to search for the so-called Facebook killer.
Police say Steve Stephens, 37, a job counselor for teens and young adults, shot and killed Robert Godwin Sr., 74, on Sunday. The killing was posted on Facebook.
Dozens of officers walked the fan concourse as well as the lower-level bowels of the arena, but nothing appeared out of the ordinary during pregame.
The Cavaliers held a moment of silence before the national anthem to remember Godwin, and the team offered its condolences to his family.
The extra precaution didn’t appear to hinder any of the Cavs’ typical pregame routine, nor did it impede the fans entering the arena. All bags were checked, as is routine, and the seats were full just ahead of tip-off. The Cavs won 117-111 to take a 2-0 lead.
The Pacers were told to stay in their team hotel Sunday night because of the search.
“People probably won’t notice anything different, but for every one uniformed officer there will probably be three (plainclothes officers) roaming through the crowd to look for anything unusual,” Stephen Loomis, president of the local police union, said earlier Monday.
Loomis said the city’s local casino also was upgrading its security in wake of public statements by the killer lamenting gambling debts.
A measure of the dragnet’s intensity, Loomis said, was marked Sunday night when so many officers joined the search that there weren’t enough patrol cars to accommodate them all.
The killing has prompted a farflung partnership involving local, state and federal authorities on a level not seen since last summer’s Republican National Convention, where authorities took unprecedented steps to secure the city against the prospect of violent protests. Those clashes never materialized.