Cleveland Police Shoot Unarmed People!

Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were killed by Cleveland Police in a hail of bullets. The FBI and U.S. Justice Department are investigating whether the police used excessive force in the pursuit of fleeing suspects.

Since winning reelection, the president has been at odds with Congressional Republicans over the debt ceiling and fiscal cliff. The Republicans have stalled progress once again in the name of their radical agenda.

With the Sandy Hook tragedy thrust into the spotlight, many of the president's progressive allies are saying it's time to put gun control on the table.

President Barack Obama is listening to you loud and clear! After failing to keep his promise on restricting assault weapons, the president's second term agenda begins with a bunch of appointments to fill cabinet positions, a way to cut spending and of course a way to keep dangerous firearms out of the reach of the mentally insane.

Now before this Sandy Hook tragedy, I was going to talk about the controversy in East Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Police, the East Cleveland Police and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff are under investigation for the shooting of unarmed criminals. Over 137 police rounds were fired into the vehicle.

The Plain Dealer reports that a Cleveland police chase Nov. 29 that ended in East Cleveland with two apparently unarmed people shot more than 40 times will continue for at least three more weeks, Attorney General Mike DeWine announced this afternoon.

Police knew about Malissa Williams from her days of walking the stroll and committing petty theft.

"Up to 20 BCI agents are working on the investigation at any given time," DeWine said in a telephone interview after the announcement at an unrelated 1:30 p.m. news conference in Cleveland.

"But there are some things we may never know."

The gunshot residue tests, for instance, may not provide any answers, because residue from the police officers' gunfire may be found on the bodies of 43-year-old Timothy Russell and 30-year-old Malissa Williams and on their car. Russell was a john and Williams was a prostitute.

Malissa Williams had come into contact with Cleveland officers at least 50 times -- going back to 2001, according to police and court records.

Officers arrested Williams dozens of times for drug use, prostitution, theft and other petty crimes.

Her arrests resulted in charges in more than 46 municipal court cases going back to 2002 and in flurries of additional warrants for the times she didn't show up for court.

"It's unlikely the tests will prove that a gun was fired at the start of the chase," DeWine said.

So far, the state agents -- who took over the investigation Dec. 3 -- have gathered more than 200 pieces of evidence and interviewed more than 30 officers and 15 witnesses.

Timothy Russell was killed after a police pursuit. He picked up a prostitute and the police were proceeding to stop him. He ran and ended up hitting another police cruiser. The Cleveland Police and other departments ended up shooting him and the woman.

According to DeWine:

The 47 bullets removed from the bodies are being analyzed.

A reconstruction of the shooting scene -- where 137 shots were fired -- took three days and has been completed.

Crash damage to Russell's car is being compared to damaged police cars.

A shooting reconstruction has been completed on the two police cars that had bullet holes.
The car was combed for evidence, which is being examined.

Investigators have driven the entire 22-mile pursuit route and walked much of it. They collected 15 surveillance videos and have more to pick up. They canvassed the downtown area where a police officer said he heard a gunshot come from Russell's car.

They are trying to piece together all of Russell and Williams' activities during their last day alive.

They are analyzing every second of the dispatch tapes and video taken from several police dashboard cameras.

"There are 30 more officers to interview who were involved in some way," DeWine said.

Once the investigation is complete and a full report has been written, DeWine will announce the findings at a news conference, he said.


This generated an amount of controversy. A group called Black on Black Crime organized the rally, which included prayers, chanting and a brief march that ended outside Heritage Middle School, where the shooting occurred.

Thirteen Cleveland police officers fired 137 bullets Thursday at a car after a high speed chase, killing the pair.

Some people in the group this afternoon referred to the killings as a "lynching" and one sign compared the killing of Russell and Williams to "Bonnie and Clyde."

Others chanted the number "137," referring to the number of shots unloaded by police and called for the resignation of officers involved.

A news release from the group said the following:

Bonnie & Clyde, the notorious bank robbers, were shot 30 to 50 times when their vehicle was surrounded by the posse of Texas and Louisiana officers. We know Bonnie & Clyde were criminals. Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell were surrounded by the Cleveland police after a police chase through several communities and around 137 bullets were fired into their car. We know why they were chasing Bonnie and Clyde, but we are not clear why they were chasing Malissa and Timothy. Yet, they died in a hail of gunfire on a narrow road behind Heritage School in East Cleveland.

It appears that these two victims were unarmed and no gun casings were found in the vehicle to show that they had been shooting at anyone. So, it appears that two unarmed people were gunned down in what the police union official calls a “good shooting.” We do know that the Cleveland police violated many rules and regulations in the case and the shooting.

The community and family have questions.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson had said today that his administration would support police officers involved in the shooting deaths of two people Thursday night, provided they were within what he called "the box" -- department rules regarding pursuit and use of deadly force.

"But if they go outside of the box, there will be consequences," Jackson said in a news conference early this afternoon.

Jackson also asked the community to have patience as the city works with investigators from the city of East Cleveland, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath confirmed today that 12 of the 13 police officers involved in the shooting were white and one was Hispanic. The family of Marisa Williams, a black woman killed in the shooting, has suggested that the shooting was racially motivated.

East Cleveland Sgt. Scott Gardner said the Cleveland officers have been on paid leave the last three days.

The chase began about 10:30 p.m. Thursday outside the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland. In a news conference Saturday, Follmer said two Cleveland officers heard a gunshot and believed it came from a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu belonging to Timothy Russell.

Russell, with Williams in his car, sped away.