A Cleveland police officer who stood on the hood of a car and fired his gun 49 times through the windshield at two unarmed passengers was on Saturday found not guilty on two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

Officer Michael Brelo was also found not guilty of felonious assault, and discharged. He remains on unpaid leave.

The federal Department of Justice announced a review of the decision. In a statement to which civil rights division head Vanita Gupta was one of three names attached, the DoJ said: “We will now review the testimony and evidence presented in the state trial … to collaboratively determine what, if any, additional steps are available and appropriate.”

Protests followed the verdict, as civic leaders called for calm.

“It is my expectation that we will show the nation that peaceful protest is a right,” said Mayor Frank Jackson, at an afternoon press conference. Jackson added that anyone, protester or police, who had “a different agenda” would not be tolerated.

In court in the morning, Cuyahoga County judge John P O’Donnell said prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that bullets fired by Brelo were the cause of death of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, or that Brelo had no fear for his own life during the volley of gunfire that ended a high-speed car chase on 29 November 2012.



Regarding the shots fired from Brelo’s gun, O’Donnell said they could have been the ones causing death, but so could others fired by other officers before his shots from the hood of the vehicle.

“I cannot find beyond a reasonable doubt which of the fatal wounds he caused,” O’Donnell said.

As far as Brelo’s perception that he was in danger, and therefore justified in firing his weapon, O’Connell said the prosecution only proved that Brelo’s action may not have been in line with some of the department’s procedural standards.

“Not conforming to the training, and maybe not appropriate for the circumstances, but not illegal,” the judge said of Brelo firing his last 15 shots from on top of the car hood, down into the passengers in the front seats.

“The verdict should be no cause for a civilized society to celebrate or riot,” O’Donnell said in remarks preceding his lengthy reading of 10 pages of his 35-page verdict, in which he discussed the wounds suffered by Williams and Russell, which were indicated on two mannequins in court, and the views and actions of other police officers involved in the shooting.

After O’Donnell delivered his verdict, some African American spectators in the courthouse shouted: “No justice, no peace!”



About 40 protesters gathered outside the courthouse in downtown. The protest turned a little ugly as Brelo’s attorney, Patrick D’Angelo, made his way outside for TV interviews. The small crowd surrounded D’Angelo and some screamed “protector of killers” as he was escorted back into the courthouse by deputies.

Police quickly barricaded the roads around the courthouse, closing them to vehicle traffic but permitting people to protest in the street.

“This verdict was no surprise to the black community,” said one African American community activist outside the court house. “The law is written so the police can get away with abusing people of color, and this is proof of how that works.”

Initially, protests seemed likely to remain peaceful. One city councilman, Jeff Johnson, told the Guardian: “I would encourage everyone in Cleveland to hit the streets, and express your opinion if this decision outrages you.

“But rioting will do nothing for the cause of changing the judicial view of these cases of excessive force. We must show restraint.

“I believe this verdict is unreasonable, and I’m sure members of many communities in Cleveland will think it is unreasonable. There is a court of popular opinion, and we must raise our voices in a peaceful way that this is not a standard of police behavior we will tolerate.”

Another councilman, Zack Reed, added: “I’m hoping Cleveland will be a model in how to handle decisions like this, and that everyone will agree to be calm and not bring any harm to the citizens of this city.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters confront sheriff’s deputies carrying riot shields outside the courthouse in Cleveland. Photograph: Daniel McGraw

Brelo’s trial ended about three weeks ago, and was decided by a judge instead of a jury at the request of the defendant. The move allowed the decision to be made by a judge looking only at the strict legal interpretation of the case, rather than by a jury that might render a decision based more on emotion.



Sources have told the Guardian that O’Donnell waited so long to issue his verdict in order to give the city time to prepare for any resultant civic unrest of the kind seen recently in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore after cases involving deaths at the hands of police.

The judge picked a Saturday morning on a holiday weekend to announce the verdict, the sources said, to provide an extra day for law enforcement to calm the city, and also as a way to lessen problems that might be caused by high school students. In recent years, downtown Cleveland has experienced some acts of mob violence carried out by high school students – in particular on St Patrick’s Day this year.

Brelo, 31, joined the Cleveland police department in 2007, having served in the marine corps in Iraq. He was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter. Each count can carry a sentence of three to eight years in prison.

Brelo’s trial resulted froma police chase on 29 November 2012, when Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell led police on a 20-minute pursuit that involved 60 police cars and about 100 police officers. The chase began when their car, a 1979 Chevy Malibu, apparently backfired as it passed police headquarters in downtown Cleveland. The noise was mistaken for a gunshot.

Police fired 137 shots at Malissa Williams, left, and Timothy Russell Photograph: Internet

Williams, 30, and Russell, 43, were boxed into a middle-school parking lot when 13 Cleveland police officers fired 137 shots into the car in an 18-second volley. Brelo fired the most – 49 shots total – including 15 at the end of the barrage while standing on the hood of the car, aiming at the pair through the windshield. Even though a dozen other officers fired 88 bullets into the car, only Brelo was charged.

If Brelo was fearful that he or another officer or a bystander might get hurt, he was entitled to use deadly force.

The prosecution also had to prove that Brelo’s actions led to the deaths of Williams and Russell, meaning the bullets fired from his gun were the ones that killed them. No forensic science experts could say with any certainty that any of Brelo’s 49 bullets resulted in death.

The Brelo case caused widespread outrage and led to an investigation of the use of excessive force by the Cleveland police department. In February 2013, the Ohio attorney general, Mike DeWine, found that the chase and killing of Russell and Williams represented “a systematic failure in the Cleveland police department”.

Last December, after a 21-month investigation sparked by the case, the then US attorney general Eric Holder released a report that found Cleveland police had engaged in a pattern and practice of excessive force, including unnecessary deadly force. The Department of Justice report alleged that the excessive force violated Cleveland citizens’ constitutional rights, and was based on more than 600 incidents between 2012 and 2013.

The bullet-riddled front windshield of the car driven by Timothy Russell in Cleveland. Photograph: Aaron Josefczyk/AP

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Cleveland’s mayor, Frank Jackson, has been in office for 10 years, during which time, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “in more than 60 lawsuits, citizens accused officers of needlessly shooting at them, beating them during routine traffic stops, shocking them with Tasers while face-down on the ground in handcuffs or arresting them when they had committed no crime”.

Those lawsuits cost the city more than $8m to resolve, according to the report.

Adding to the Cleveland police department’s problems is the ongoing investigation into the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. The boy was holding a toy pellet gun when he was shot by police in a city park last November.

With expectations that a not guilty verdict might spark riots similar to those seen in Baltimore last month, Cleveland police and city leaders met various community groups in private. Neighborhood outreach teams included religious leaders, youth league coaches, business leaders, motorcycle club members and former gang members, in an effort to keep the peace regardless of the verdict.