The Cleveland Division of Police has fired Michael Brelo and five other officers over their actions during a high-speed chase in 2012 that ended in the deaths of two unarmed suspects. Brelo was accused of jumping onto the vehicle's hood and firing 15 rounds through its windshield.
The police chase ended in an outburst of gunfire that killed the two people inside the car: Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Last May, Brelo was found not guilty of two counts of voluntary manslaughter — in part, because, as Eyder reported for the Two-Way, it was impossible to determine whose bullets had killed the pair.
Brelo and other officers at the scene were found to have fired 137 rounds in a span of 19.6 seconds. Investigators say he leaped from a police car onto the suspects' car after an initial fusillade of bullets.
[...]
The shooting came after a chase in which officers repeatedly said the people in the car had a weapon, were firing — and were perhaps reloading. Those claims were shown to be erroneous, and the police were criticized for several breaks with protocol during the chase, including a failure to avoid cross-fire situations in the fatal shooting.
