Cleveland Cops Fire 137 Shots In 20 Seconds Over Shot Heard Fired At or Near Officer

The driver and a passenger were killed

Cleveland PD

Police in East Cleveland say they found no gun and no shell casings in the car from which one unidentified officer said he heard a shot fired at or near him. Two people were killed, Timothy Ray Russell, the driver, and a passenger, Malissa Williams. From local TV station WKYC:

At the press conference, Cleveland Police Chief Mike McGrath said that the pursuit lasted 25 minutes, that 13 Cleveland police officers were involved in the situation, and 137 rounds were fired by police.

All 13 police officers were placed on administrative leave.

McGrath said it was determined that the bullet holes in the police cars were caused by police weapons.

Spotts said no East Cleveland police officers were on the scene when the pursuit ended.

The barrage of fire lasted more than 20 seconds:

A task force including the local police department, the county police, the county prosecutor and the state criminal bureau is investigating.

Comments

[SIV]

The New Professionalism

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

We have to get police weapons off the streets.

[Brett L]

So only half of the cops chamber a round and top off?

[Raston Bot]

FOP will investigate that promptly.

[Ptah-Hotep]

There is always at least one:

Chari Rayner ? St. Augustine Academy
EVERYONE has a chance at a "peaceful leaving" it was their choice to do something illegal.

[robc]

McGrath said it was determined that the bullet holes in the police cars were caused by police weapons.

Do they get their pay docked for damage they did to the vehicles?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Panic fire is the best kind of fire there is.

[Adam.]

Thank you, this made me laugh.

[LTC(ret) John]

It's the "Iraqi Army Death Blossom" fire effect - now in Cleveland!

[Brett L]

Reminds me of the police chief in FL, when asked why they shot 44 rounds at a suspect, he said, "Well, that's how many rounds they had in their magazines."

[LTC(ret) John]

We leveled our weapons, held down the triggers, and insh'allah mine enemy shall fall!

[Killazontherun]

awesome

[R C Dean]

So, cops hear what they think is a shot (there's zero evidence that anyone who wasn't a cop did any shooting), and they light up the nearest black guy?

Nice. This certainly wasn't self-defense. Not sure what they were pursuing these two over, but generally speaking cops aren't supposed to use lethal force on fleeing suspects unless the suspect poses an immediate danger to people around them.

[Fatty Bolger]

Probably went something like this:

Cop #1: Watch out for a gun

Cop #2 (overhearing): GUN!!

Cop #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13: BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!!...

[BakedPenguin]

"They're coming right for us!"

[Death Rock and Skull]

SOMEONE SAID FIRE!

[Sernylan]

That is probably closest to the truth. When the first cop "accidently" discharged his gun, all the others screamed "Shots fired? Shots fired!" and unleashed a barrage on these two would be copkillers?. The initial report on this probably said the these two died at the scene of "lead poisoning...and nothing else happened!"

[Paul.]

They died from lack of oxygen to the brain.

[Hyperion]

But, but... they heard a shot! Who are you going to believe, our shining boys in blue, or those two hooligans? Oh wait, hooligans are dead, guess the cops are the ones telling the truth.

[some guy]

Maybe I misunderstood the article, but it sounded like they were just driving by some cops when one of the cops "heard" a gunshot. I think that's what started the pursuit.

[Jerryskids]

Yeah, I think that was it - a straight drive-by. Cops executing the nearest black people driving by.

I would like to think that the ME is doing a residue test on the victims' hands - but we all know such tests only come back 'positive' or 'inconclusive', never 'negative'.

[Episiarch]

It's Cleveland. Warty lives there. Enough said.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, I'm surprised they haven't nuked the city from orbit.

[Episiarch]

It's the only way to be sure...that Warty has been eradicated.

[Hyperion]

Cleveland Rocks! I heard that somewhere...

[LTC(ret) John]

Cleveland "opens fire"?

[AlmightyJB]

"It's the only way to be sure...that Warty has been eradicated."

I believe that you need bleach too.

[fish]

Why waste one? Clevelands mere existence (and Wartys presence apparently) is a suitable punishment....for Cleveland

[Hugh Akston]

I thought they did nuke the city in the 50s, and that woke the dread monster Warty who had slumbered beneath the city for aeons untold.

[Sernylan]

So Warty is the Balrog?

[AlmightyJB]

"Yes, I'm surprised they haven't nuked the city from orbit."

That's exactly what I said about Detroit whan I drove through there a couple weeks ago. Actually I say that everytime I drive through Detroit.

[Warty]

1) East Cleveland is the worst shithole you can imagine. I wouldn't wish living there on Episiarch.
2) Local activists are using this to push the CPD to install dashboard cameras in all police cruisers. What the fuck? How the fuck did they not already have cameras in all their cars?

[nicole]

I was going to ask if East Cleveland is like East St. Louis and East Chicago--i.e., so much more of a shithole than the plain version. Guess so.

[Warty]

It appears to have been a rich Jewish suburb 60 or 70 years ago, judging by the large number of ruined mansions and collapsing synagogues. Now, it's...well, look.

[tarran]

Millionaire Row. That's what they call it. At one time, it was one of the richest neighborhoods in America...

12 years ago, it was a place I hoped not to break down in as I drove from the steel mill to class.

[Warty]

I think Millionaire Row proper was Euclid and maybe Prospect around 20th-40th streets, around where CSU is now. You can still see some of the old mansions.

[Warty]

Nope, I was wrong, all of Euclid Avenue was Millionaire's Row. Rockefeller's house was in East Cleveland.

What a fucking bummer. I need to get the fuck out of this depressing place.

[BarryD]

Who in bloody fuck, with Rockefeller's fortune, would choose to live in CLEVELAND?!?

[Warty]

FUCK YOU

[Restoras]

Cleveland was a company town, with Rockefeller as Monty Burns. I can't imagine he spent all his time in Celveland.

[.Rob]

East Cleveland is, well, kinda like East St. Louis. I lived up the hill as a youngin' and it was definitely a "no-go" area. Lots of old mansions (a few are still left crumbling) that were abandoned during the "White Flight" era. Rockefeller did actually live there; in fact Euclid Ave., which is the main drag through, was "Millionaire's Row." My grandfather even lived in EC as did my parents when they were first married in the early 60's. The area Warty is describing down by CSU was vacated sometime in the late 20's and the fat cats al moved to EC, which was the burbs at the time. The place is virtually the same as Detroit.

[robc]

What? No drug sale going on in the middle of the street while the google car drives by?

[Death Rock and Skull]

You find that everywhere. Google Maps in Aspen has a guy doing coke off a mailbox every couple of blocks.

[LTC(ret) John]

You call that bad?! There was acutal window glass to be seen, and no burn marks covering the front of the buildings.

Try exiting I-290, and go north on Cicero Ave in Chicago - or almost anywhere in East St. Louis, IL

[Warty]

I've been in East STL. Lovely place, full of lovely people. Still less depressing than East Cleveland.

[LTC(ret) John]

True - E. St. Louis was never more than a working class/middle class town, whereas the are you showed was once something.

Driving up Sacramento Ave from the Eisenhower, to get to my old Guard Armory, I used to see ramshackle houses and next to them might be a weed covered lot, where a house once stood but was now just kind of a scar on the ground. How the hell could we get this way? May the Daley family and every other politician rot in Hell.

[Hyperion]

Parts of North Ave in Balmer. The once beautiful stone mansions with the windows all boarded up is really a depressing site. There are mile after mile of boarded up row houses in the city and even if you could buy one of them for $1 and renovate it, you wouldn't live for a week before they found your murdered and robbed carcass. And even if you survived that, the city of Baltimore would tax you to death. Except for little pockets here and there, what could be a really beautiful city is now a boarded up and dangerous slum.

[Warty]

Good. You deserve nothing but ruin for harboring Art Modell.

[Hyperion]

You know who else we harbored?

[Episiarch]

The parts north of Johns Hopkins used to be super nice, at least. Are they still? I used to live here. Just above Homewood starts to get really nice. Which is why I lived there.

[Hyperion]

You are referring to Hampden? It is nice, it's one of those little pockets. In general, the part that I live in, the NW, is all pretty nice, some of it really nice, Mount Washington, Cross County, and that area just inside the city south of Baltimore County.

[Death Rock and Skull]

Chicago still has some ruined storefronts from the "Convention".

[Dr. Frankenstein]

My GPS took me down Cicero Ave. once. I didn't realize what the neighborhood was like until I was passing all the currency exchanges, liquor stores, pawn shops, auto repair shops and storefront churches with no other businesses. Fortunately it was early on a Sunday morning so the only people out were the ones heading to the storefront churches.

[Sernylan]

I suspect that Clevland's decline began somewhere around the advent of this, behold..."The full Cleavland" in all it's glory.

[Hyperion]

West Baltimore likely has them all beat.

[LTC(ret) John]

My boss got us lost in West Baltimore in 2006. I think driving around Kabul scared me less. Brrrrr.

[Hyperion]

It's damn scary, that's for sure. There are some streets in West Baltimore that I would not drive on, in the day time, if someone paid me $1000 to do it.

[John Thacker]

The real problem is that they don't sell GPS units with a "no West Ballmer" option. Tourists accidentally go through there.

[Episiarch]

I'm too wealthy to live within five states of where you live, so no danger there.

[Drake]

The good news is that trigger-happy Cleveland cops can't shoot for crap.

[LTC(ret) John]

"Two people were killed, Timothy Ray Russell, the driver, and a passenger, Malissa Williams."

You count that as "good news"?! WTF?

[fish]

It was two not seventy five! 137 shots could have been far worse!

[Drake]

Dammit - should have read the article.

[Groovus Maximus]

**Lights Dunphy Signal**

[Hyperion]

Somenone say something about pot and Seattle and ... oh nos, I have done it now.

[Death Rock and Skull]

SOMEONE SAID SHOOT!

[SIV]

Did one of the suspects bark at the officers? That would explain a lot.

[Delroy]

Are you saying he should have meowed?

[Delroy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yXZRdeGHEo

[Hyperion]

Don't joke. Large Maine Coon cats or Savanahs with their dangerous raptor like claws could threaten our officers. Time to start shooting kitties and nip this one in the bud. And afterall, is it really fair to dogs that they are getting shot while cats roam free from the fear of the law? In fairness, they have to begin Kittycide soon.

[Skyhawk]

Don't forget that aquarium fish can carry disease.
We need another 'stimulus bill' to equip our brave men in blue with harpoons, in case they no-knock raid a homeowner with pet fish.

[The Dan]

like this? http://www.whsv.com/home/headl.....85278.html

[Andrew S.]

This is just poor police work. How did they manage to do this without a gun to plant in the car?

[Zombie Jimbo]

They fired all the ammo in the plant gun into the suspects and their car. Maybe they thought someone might check.

[Hyperion]

What? they got the bad guys. Why do you hate the children?

[sarcasmic]

"Born In East L.A."

[SIV]

OT:
In 'new Egypt', mobs sexually assault women with impunity

The mob pounded on the glass doors after she reached the safety of a Hardee's restaurant on Tahrir Square, which has become a sort of refuge for women. Dridi realized her skirt was unzipped and broke down in tears.

"The thing that was so sad was that the Hardee's waiters were ? waiting to help me because they are so used to that," she told NBC News.

Egyptian Hardees has waiters? Is this a union thing?

[Restoras]

Hardees is fine dining in Egypt.

[nicole]

Just look at the video. She was clearly asking for it, what with showing her hair and face and all.

[Raston Bot]

I see a growth market for pepper spray or some type of reverse condom bear trap device.

[WTF]

Condom Bear Trap = band name

[Andrew S.]

There's a video on the story page with about 4 minutes of a press conference with the police chief and another man, who I assume is the DA.

Given how many times the word "they heard a gunshot" were emphasized, it's pretty clear the way the investigation will go. Not like it wouldn't have been clear anyways.

[heller]

Is "I heard a gunshot" the new "stop resisting?"

[LTC(ret) John]

Did they throw in "furtive movement" or "suspicious object" or "officers feared for their safety and that of others"?

[robc]

they heard a gunshot

No, they didnt. If they had, a gun or casings would have been found. They can claim it all they want, that doesnt make it true. They may have honestly thought they heard a gunshot, but they didnt.

[Restoras]

It's the Gulf of Tonkin incident all over again. And again, and again, and again...

[Whahappan?]

"Remember the Maine!"

[R C Dean]

They thought they heard a gunshot, but obviously none of them saw their targets-to-be shooting.

So even if they actually heard a gunshot (which at this point is a big unknown), that doesn't justify anyone shooting at someone they have no reason to believe actually fired a gun.

[sarcasmic]

They're all wired on adrenaline and trained to shoot at anything that they find remotely threatening.

End of story.

[Andrew S.]

I agree 100%. Was just commenting on what I perceived from that press conference. It's going to be used as an excuse, and this is going to be swept under the rug. The officers involved will get a nice paid vacation over the holidays and will be back at work early next year, fresh and ready to go shoot someone else.

[Scarcity]

The victims led them on a chase for some time. So, as is always the case in these FUBARs, there will be plenty of unsympathetic info coming out about the dead, the media will scurry on, and the cops will get back to serving and protecting after their little paid vacation.

[heller]

Well that's what you get for making imaginary noises around cops.

[sarcasmic]

Who knows if the gunshot they heard was a pissed off cop executing the driver?

[Juice]

Goddamn, even Cairo has a Hardee's. The nearest Hardee's to me is Roanoke, VA. I miss it.

[SIV]

I miss Roanoke. I hate Hardees. They haven't been any good since the dropped the
"Hurry on down to Hardees....where the burgers are charco-broiled" jingle.

[Atanarjuat]

I still haz a sad that they got rid of the Steakhouse Thickburger.

[NeonCat]

They've had commercials featuring scantily clad, reasonably attractive women (and Paris Hilton) writhing around eating their food. How can you hate that?

[Brett L]

I'll trade you Hardees for a Jack-in-the-Box within six hours' drive of me.

[Mensan]

Best I could find was about 6 1/2 hours:

2181 South Sherwood Forest Boulevard
Baton Rouge, LA 70816

[LTC(ret) John]

Jack-in-the-Box?! You some kind of food poisoning aficionado?

[Brett L]

Once you've built up your immunity to it through exposure, its the best fast food in the world. The tacos have borne me through some absolutely wretched hangovers. They are objectively terrible, but goddam if my body doesn't crave them after drinking.

[Sernylan]

"Once you've built up your immunity to it through exposure,"

E-coli is an entirely natural preservative, and flavor enhancer, with almost no truly harmful side effects what so ever...although there are some might be sensitive to it.

[Hyperion]

Hardees sucks balls, dude. It's worse than McDonalds.

[Tonio]

Gunfire detectors (basically a microphone with some electronics to filter out non-gunfire noise) are all the rage among city governments. I wonder if East Cleveland has those in place and what the records from those devices show.

[BakedPenguin]

The records for that evening were mistakenly deleted. Or will be mistakenly deleted.

[some guy]

"Mistakenly deleted" indicates an error was made.

More likely there will have been an "equipment malfunction".

[buybuydandavis]

Or will be mistakenly deleted.

That's funny.

[some guy]

The records will show 137 gunshots in about 20 seconds.

And nothing else happened.

[R C Dean]

I wonder if East Cleveland has those in place and what the records from those devices show.

A barrage of gunfire?

[BakedPenguin]

137 shots, Jesus. These fucking Keystone Cops would be funny if they could stop murdering random people.

[Sernylan]

What?..it's consistant with the national average.

[Rich]

I'll just leave this here.

[Death Rock and Skull]

SOMEONE SAID HOWITZER!

[Redmanfms]

I've noticed that the TEAM BLUEst towns tend to have the most violent, corrupt, and "rights violatey" police forces.

I really wonder why, especially since BLUEs frequently run on anti-corruption, anti-brutality slogans. I suspect it has to do with unions, but I've never really made any kind of concerted study of the matter, just general observations.

[sarcasmic]

Team BLUE is all about controlling everything and everyone, so of course they need some violent enforcers to the the controlling.
It is somewhat ironic that the people who want the police to be the only people with guns are flabbergasted when cops treat disarmed and helpless citizens with absolutely no respect.

[Randian]

Democratic rhetoric on a national level doesn't even come close to their true governance in cities. Democrats are the masters of city political machines.

[R C Dean]

And what we are now seeing is that a city machine operation can be successfully transplanted to the White House.

If I was the Repubs, that's what I would be truly worried about. Not all this ethnic voting gap nonsense. The fact that a model based on thuggery and blatant cronyism and payoffs has just jumped, successfully, to the national level. That's a model the Dems are masters at running, which the Repubs just haven't used nearly as much.

If that's what a successful Presidency looks like now, it'll be a Dem preserve for quite some time.

[AlmightyJB]

What's interesting about that is why the repubs don;t spend more time combining those issues. Minorities are the most impacted by bad cops and bad teachers, but the Union-Dem alliance in those cities prevent any reform in either area. Not to mention the rent seeking that block entrances for poor people to start their own businesses. I see these things discussed by a few commentators but it hasn't been politicized to any great degree.

[Killazontherun]

Communist in rhetoric, fascist in temperament.

[buybuydandavis]

This is a dashboard camera, right?

How is it that the picture is so bad? What is this, a 100 pixel camera? Do they use cameras that still have the IRs filters, so you can't see squat at night?

[Sernylan]

Well, there is stil hope. Sure, they can kill all the unarmed suspects they want, but if they filed their reports in "ebonics", they might yet get fired.

[Paul.]

Procedures were followed... rules obeyed. Medals all around.

[Romulus Augustus]

When are all these shithole cities with asshole cops going to toss out of office their Republican mayors and city councils???

[Redmanfms]

Hmmm....

Maybe when the Dems who've been running them unopposed for 50+ years suddenly change their party allegiance to (R) en masse.

[Bramblyspam]

I am so reminded of the ED-209 scene from the original Robocop movie...
I am now authorized to use physical force...