Cleveland Protests Erupt after Officer Found Not Guilty
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A Cleveland police officer was found not guilty on Saturday in the shooting deaths of an unarmed black man and a woman after a high-speed car chase in 2012, one in a series of cases that have raised questions over police conduct and race relations in the United States.
Judge John O'Donnell said Officer Michael Brelo, 31, acted reasonably in shooting the two suspects while standing on the hood of their surrounded car and firing multiple rounds through the windshield. Brelo, who was among a group of officers who fired on the car, was found not guilty of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
The trial, which began on April 6, took place at a time when US law enforcement is under scrutiny for the use of lethal force against minority groups. It followed a series of high-profile deaths of unarmed black men in confrontations with police, which have prompted sometimes violent demonstrations.
The two people who were killed, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, were black and Brelo, a former Marine, is white, Reuters reported.
"Brelo was acting in conditions difficult for even experienced officers to imagine," O'Donnell said during the roughly hour-long reading of the verdict.
"He was in a strange place at night surrounded by gunfire, sirens and flashing bulbs. Brelo did not fire too quickly or at a person who was clearly unarmed or unable to run him over," he added.
Soon after the verdict, a small crowd of demonstrators took to the streets chanting "No justice, no peace," while police in riot gear patrolled.
Later on Saturday, protests appeared to become more unruly, as Cleveland police reported on Twitter they were handling a large crowd with members who had sprayed other people with pepper spray.
Officers made multiple arrests, including at a restaurant where someone threw an object through a window and injured a customer, police said.
Reaction to the verdict was swift on social media, with many saying they were bewildered.
US Representative Marcia Fudge, a Democrat from Ohio, called the decision a "stunning setback on the road to justice."
"The verdict is another chilling reminder of a broken relationship between the Cleveland Police Department and the community it serves," she said in a statement.
"Today we have been told – yet again – our lives have no value," added Fudge, who is African-American.
The US Justice Department said its civil rights division, the US attorney's office and the FBI were reviewing testimony and evidence from the state trial and would determine if federal action would be taken.
