A Cuyahoga County grand jury Friday indicted six Cleveland police officers for their roles in a 2012 police chase and shooting that left two people dead and carved deep schisms into the community, reports The Plain Dealer.
The grand jury charged Patrolman Michael Brelo with two counts of voluntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony. The panel also accused five supervisors of dereliction of duty: Sergeants Randolph Dailey, Patricia Coleman, Jason Edens, Michael Donegan and Lt. Paul Wilson, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said.
Brelo fired 49 shots at a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu. He fired his Glock handgun more than any of the 13 officers who unloaded 137 shots at the car, after a 23-minute chase that began at the Justice Center in Cleveland and ended in an East Cleveland middle school.
But Patrick D'Angelo, an attorney for the police union, lambasted the prosecutor and the indictment. He said McGinty's office had the benefit of hindsight, spending about 18 months dissecting the movements Brelo made in seconds.
"His rendition of the facts is a gross distortion of the reality of the dangerous events that Officer Brelo faced," D'Angelo said. "He is using soundbites to fit his theory of the case."
