24 May 2015

Cleveland shooting: arrests made after not guilty verdict

Police make dozens of arrests in Cleveland, Ohio, as crowds protested the acquittal of a white officer who fired through the windscreen of a suspect’s car that killed the two unarmed black occupants.

A judge said on Saturday that he could not determine that the officer, Michael Brelo, fired the fatal shots.

The acquittal came at a time of nationwide tension over the deaths of black suspects at the hands of white officers, and following a determination by the US Department of Justice that Cleveland police had a history of using excessive force and violating civil rights.

Read more: Race in America - from Ferguson to Baltimore

The deaths occurred after Timothy Russell’s car backfired outside police headquarters on November 29, 2012.

Thirteen officers fired at the car with Russell and Malissa Williams inside after a 22-mile (35-kilometre) chase that involved 62 marked and unmarked cars and reached 100 miles per hour (160 kilometre per hour).

Russell and Williams were each shot more than 20 times.

Read more: Inequality and lies on the frontline in Ferguson

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.

Prosecutors argued they were alive until Brelo’s final shots, but medical examiners for both sides testified they could not determine the order in which the deadly shots were fired.

US Representative Marcia Fudge, a Democrat from Ohio, called the decision a “stunning setback on the road to justice.”

The following footage contains images that some viewers may find distressing.

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The South Carolina shooting of an unarmed black man in North Charleston was the latest in a line of incidents that shocked AmericaChannel 4 News looks back at some of the most controversial examples of police officers using lethal force against African-American men.It contains footage that some viewers may find distressing. Read more: http://bit.ly/1alRnsN

Posted by Channel 4 News on Wednesday, April 8, 2015