CLEVELAND (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team has uncovered more violence during street takeovers in Cleveland last weekend, including the beating of an off-duty police officer.
It happened as massive, wild crowds took over city streets for hours even after police had warning.
More fallout has come to light, including an attack on an off-duty Parma officer. A report shows at West 25th Street, he got out of his car and asked people to move so that he could go home.
Police say five men then beat him, and multiple sources say the attackers pistol-whipped the officer.
In fact, the report shows, when the attack was over, the men told the officer to get out of there.
When he reminded them that’s what he was trying to do, police say he was hit again.
The street takeovers involved dozens and dozens of cars gathering as drivers did stunts in the middle of the roadway. It happened on the east side, west side and on the Innerbelt Bridge.
Police video shows a Cleveland ambulance with lights and sirens on blocked at one intersection, unable to get through the cars blocking the streets as drivers did stunts.
Now, we’ve learned many callers reported to 911 people in the crowds flashed guns and fired shots.
One caller said someone “put a gun” to his face.
Earlier, we also showed you a party bus driver and his passengers terrorized by people wearing masks and flashing guns.
“I thought the men and women of our police department did a fantastic job,” Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb told the I-Team this week.
He gave credit to police dealing with this, but police radio recordings showed police did not have nearly enough officers.
Yet, an email obtained by the I-Team shows police had a warning posted on social media hours before the takeovers. The crowds even targeted officers hitting two with BB or pellet guns, as well as hitting a police car.
A big group even swarmed an officer in his car and jumped on it.
Some 911 callers got a recording. Others complained about having to wait for police, so we challenged the mayor on that.
“We can always do better. We can always do better,” he said.
In the meantime, we went down the hall from the mayor’s office. Notice what the city council president had to say about the weekend’s street takeovers.
“We’ve got to do better,” Blaine Griffin said.
He promised to try to do something.
“I know it’s our job to restore confidence, but it is also our job to tell the truth. It is also our job to fix things when things are broken,” he said.
“Chief Todd and the entire command staff will continue to do everything possible,” Bibb said.
The mayor points out that the city has started a task force on figuring out how to stop the street takeovers.
But, we’ve seen them a lot since spring and some 911 callers demanded action immediately.
Nonetheless, as of late Tuesday, police still had not released any pictures or video of suspects or their vehicles.
Police still had not answered questions about arrests made or tickets issued for this weekend’s chaos either.
The Cleveland City Council Public Safety Committee plans to hold a hearing this Wednesday morning.
Ed Gallek
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