A white Cleveland patrolman who fired down through the windshield of a suspect's car at the end of a 137-shot barrage that left the two unarmed black occupants dead was acquitted Saturday of criminal charges by a judge who said he could not determine the officer alone fired the fatal shots.
Brelo — who fired a total of 49 shots, including 15 down through the windshield while standing on the hood of the suspects' vehicle — faced as many as 22 years in prison had the judge convicted him on two counts of voluntary manslaughter for his role in the end of a chase that began after Timothy Russell's beat-up Chevy Malibu backfired.
Thirteen officers fired at the car with Russell and Malissa Williams inside after a 22-mile high-speed chase that involved 62 marked and unmarked cars and reached 100 mph. The pursuit began when Russell's car backfired as he sped past Cleveland police headquarters and police officers and bystanders thought someone inside had fired a gun.
Brelo was the only officer charged because prosecutors said he waited until the pair was no longer a threat to fire his final 15 rounds.
Russell, 43, and Williams, 30, were each shot more than 20 times. While prosecutors argued they were alive until Brelo's final salvo, medical examiners for both sides testified that they could not determine the order in which the deadly shots were fired.
http://news.yahoo.com/verdict-reached-officer-over-deaths-137-shot-barrage-122057059.html
These two men died because their car needed a tuneup and dozens of cops went berserk.
WTF ???
I went to college in Cleveland during the Hough riots of the 1960s. I'm very happy that I'm no longer there.
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