A Cleveland police officer has been found not guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of two unarmed passengers whose car hood he mounted, firing multiple shots into their windshield.
Michael Brelo, 31, who is white, was charged with killing Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams — both of whom were black — after a car chase in November 2012. He rubbed his face and nodded his head as the judge read the verdict.
"Brelo reasonably perceived a threat," Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell said while he found beyond a reasonable doubt that Brelo caused at least one fatal wound to Williams' chest, he couldn't determine that the other fatal shots came from his gun.
"One or two other officers inflicted" the others, O'Donnell said, and therefore, he couldn't find Brelo guilty of Williams' death.
Nonethless, he said, Brelo "ran afoul of the Constitution" when he got on top of the car, taking action that officers are not trained to do. Brelo could still face lesser charges.
The high-speed pursuit started after Russell's 1979 Chevy Malibu stuttered while driving past police headquarters. Officers thought the noise was a gun going off inside the car, and 13 cops responded by firing shots.
Brelo was the only officer to face criminal charges. Prosecutors say he waited until the car had stopped moving and no longer poised a threat to fire 15 rounds into the windshield while standing on the car hood, firing a total of 49 rounds.
Altogether, the officers fired 137 shots. Experts testified at the trial that Russell had 23 bullet wounds and Williams had 24, reported NBC affiliate WKYC.
Brelo's attorneys argued that it wasn't possible to prove who fired the fatal shots, while prosecutors claimed that Russell, 43, and Williams, 30, were still alive until Brelo, an Iraq war Marine veteran who joined the Cleveland Police Department in 2007, ambushed them.
Brelo's attorney Patrick D'Angelo said on Saturday he was "elated" with the verdict.
"We didn't do anything illegal. We didn't do anything wrong. And I'll be damned if I'm going to let any bully push us around," he said. "We stood toe-to-toe with an oppressive government trying to put away a law-abiding citizen."
A Department of Justice investigation — opened in part because of Brelo's case — found last December that the Cleveland police had engaged in a pattern and practice of excessive force and violating civil rights for years.
The verdict was read on a Saturday because of the possibility of protests afterwards, WKYC reported. Judge O'Donnell asked for calm across Cleveland before the verdict was announced.
Racial tensions in the city got even more strained after Russell and Williams' death when police shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, also black, to death last November. Tamir was playing with a pellet gun that police thought was a real weapon. His family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the police department.
O'Donnell acknowledged those strained relations on Saturday.
"Every week, I pass a mountain of stuffed animals left in memory of a 12-year-old that many people believe was murdered by the police," he said.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-c...lo-found-not-guilty-car-hood-shooting-n363696
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Right after killer cop freed, the obligatory calls for "peace" in Cleveland begin. When the law itself is violence, what exactly is "peace?
All i'm saying is liberation and justice will not be achieved in the courts of our oppressor.
Michael Brelo, 31, who is white, was charged with killing Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams — both of whom were black — after a car chase in November 2012. He rubbed his face and nodded his head as the judge read the verdict.
"Brelo reasonably perceived a threat," Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell said while he found beyond a reasonable doubt that Brelo caused at least one fatal wound to Williams' chest, he couldn't determine that the other fatal shots came from his gun.
"One or two other officers inflicted" the others, O'Donnell said, and therefore, he couldn't find Brelo guilty of Williams' death.
Nonethless, he said, Brelo "ran afoul of the Constitution" when he got on top of the car, taking action that officers are not trained to do. Brelo could still face lesser charges.
The high-speed pursuit started after Russell's 1979 Chevy Malibu stuttered while driving past police headquarters. Officers thought the noise was a gun going off inside the car, and 13 cops responded by firing shots.
Brelo was the only officer to face criminal charges. Prosecutors say he waited until the car had stopped moving and no longer poised a threat to fire 15 rounds into the windshield while standing on the car hood, firing a total of 49 rounds.
Altogether, the officers fired 137 shots. Experts testified at the trial that Russell had 23 bullet wounds and Williams had 24, reported NBC affiliate WKYC.
Brelo's attorneys argued that it wasn't possible to prove who fired the fatal shots, while prosecutors claimed that Russell, 43, and Williams, 30, were still alive until Brelo, an Iraq war Marine veteran who joined the Cleveland Police Department in 2007, ambushed them.
Brelo's attorney Patrick D'Angelo said on Saturday he was "elated" with the verdict.
"We didn't do anything illegal. We didn't do anything wrong. And I'll be damned if I'm going to let any bully push us around," he said. "We stood toe-to-toe with an oppressive government trying to put away a law-abiding citizen."
A Department of Justice investigation — opened in part because of Brelo's case — found last December that the Cleveland police had engaged in a pattern and practice of excessive force and violating civil rights for years.
The verdict was read on a Saturday because of the possibility of protests afterwards, WKYC reported. Judge O'Donnell asked for calm across Cleveland before the verdict was announced.
Racial tensions in the city got even more strained after Russell and Williams' death when police shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, also black, to death last November. Tamir was playing with a pellet gun that police thought was a real weapon. His family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the police department.
O'Donnell acknowledged those strained relations on Saturday.
"Every week, I pass a mountain of stuffed animals left in memory of a 12-year-old that many people believe was murdered by the police," he said.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-c...lo-found-not-guilty-car-hood-shooting-n363696
--
Right after killer cop freed, the obligatory calls for "peace" in Cleveland begin. When the law itself is violence, what exactly is "peace?
All i'm saying is liberation and justice will not be achieved in the courts of our oppressor.
