CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's been a year since Cleveland police officers chased a 1979 Chevrolet Malibu to an East Cleveland school parking lot and unloaded 137 rounds intended for its occupants.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury just this month began hearing evidence and witness testimony that will help them decide whether or not any of the officers will face criminal charges in the incident a year ago today that left Timothy Russell, 43, and Malissa Williams, 30, dead.

More than 115 patrolmen, supervisors and dispatchers – more than a third of the force on duty that night – and upwards of 60 cars were involved in the pursuit. Thirteen officers fired their weapons into the car. Each told investigators they feared for their lives. Many heard radio transmissions of a gun in the car. Others saw the car lurching toward police cars as Russell tried to escape the parking lot.

One officer climbed on top of a cruiser and fired 49 shots into the Malibu. In all, Russell and Williams were struck 47 times.

An investigation found the victims likely were not armed.

The Ohio attorney general said the chase and shooting pointed to a "systemic failure" in the Cleveland Police Department.

But while the grand jury will ultimately decide what the next step in the justice process will be, much has happened in the year since the fatal shooting.

City officials, state officials and even union officials have opined about what might have gone awry that night – each reaching different conclusions as to where the blame should be placed.

About 75 officers and supervisors have been slapped with administrative punishment for their part in the deadly chase. One supervisor was fired.

And amid debate about whether officers are adequately trained, the city has changed its policies when it comes to chases and deadly force investigations.

In addition, a third investigation, this one initiated by the U.S. Justice Department will review Cleveland officers' use of force against citizens and whether they are adequately trained and supervised.

It is the second similar federal investigation into the department since 2000. That investigation into potential civil rights violations and police use of force ended with a signed agreement that allowed federal officials to monitor for a year how police responded to citizen complaints, treated people in jail and investigated police shootings.

The new probe is still in the information-gathering stage, according to Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office.

Several community forums have been held this year as well as more private interviews with residents who have had interactions with police.

And on Thursday, lawyers for the estates of Williams and Russell filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, claiming officers used excessive force, supervisors failed to rein in officers during the chase and top administrators provided inadequate training regarding policies.



Initially, city officials said the chase began when officers thought a shot was fired from the Malibu as it sped by the downtown Justice Center complex.

Security video later revealed the incident began moments earlier after an unmarked police cruiser driven by officer John Jordan attempted to pull over the Malibu near East 18th Street.

Further investigation showed that Jordan called in the plate number but didn't report the traffic stop or that the car sped away.

The chase began in earnest minutes later when a police officer outside his car heard what he thought was a gunshot fired from the Malibu as it sped by the Justice Center. A later report from state agents said the officer and other witnesses likely heard a backfire from the 33-year-old car.

While there was an initial focus on the 13 officers that fired their service weapons in the middle-school parking lot, the probe by city officials widened as Mayor Frank Jackson and Chief Michael McGrath announced in January just how many officers and vehicles were involved in the incident.

Police policy limits the number of vehicles directly engaged in a pursuit to two, "except under unusual and well-articulated circumstances."â¨â¨

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mike DeWine in February released the results of a Bureau of Criminal Investigation probe done in cooperation with East Cleveland police and Cuyahoga County Sheriff's department.

The investigation didn't determine whether the shooting was justified – that's the grand jury's job – but DeWine ignited his own firestorm by announcing the chase revealed a "systemic failure" of the department.

"Command failed, communications failed, the system failed," he said.

DeWine then took the unusual step – with the support of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty - to release thousands of pages of investigative documents, interviews, photos and videos of officer interviews to the public.

The mayor and police chief deemed DeWine's move inappropriate. They called the Attorney General's public comments premature and said they undermined ongoing criminal and administrative investigations as well as served to let officers who didn't follow clearly defined policies and procedures off the hook.

In June, McGrath fired a police sergeant, demoted two other supervisors and disciplined eight more for their roles – or lack thereof – in the incident.

Four months later, McGrath announced that 63 patrol officers would be punished with suspensions for violating police protocols related to the chase. The maximum suspension issued was 10 days.

Those punishments, many of which will be appealed, drew harsh criticism from the police patrolmen's union and its attorney, who argued that the city failed to provide proper training to officers on the pursuit policy. Some said police got little actual training beyond a rote recitation of the document.

City officials declined to comment on the yearlong process since the shooting except to make clear through a spokeswoman that Jackson's criticism was focused on the DeWine and not the county prosecutor.

Out of respect for the grand jury process, Patrick D'Angelo, the attorney for the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, said he didn't want to publicly discuss his current thoughts on the city and county investigations.

"I'm going to exercise my judgment," D'Angelo said when reached this week. "We don't really have a role in the (grand jury) process, were not in the room so it puts me in a difficult position."

But previously, D'Angelo skewered city officials who contended that officers simply chose not to follow written policies.

â¨"This department is poorly trained, if it is trained at all," D'Angelo said earlier this year.

He said that the after-the-fact second-guessing of officer action should be replaced with some real-time supervision by high-level supervisors with training in coordinating cross-district pursuits.

In addition, D'Angelo said, mixed messages officers get should be cleared up with training.

For instance, many officers involved in the chase were chided for not asking for permission to join the chase or leave their district, as policy requires.

However, D'Angelo said many were told by supervisors over the years not to muddy up over-the-air communications with such requests.

City officials have responded to such claims that training was not the core issue – that failure to follow policies by individual officers was.

However, the department did ramp up training on the policy over the summer.

The chase and fatal shooting sparked what may be some lasting change in the way future deadly force cases are investigated.

In May, five months after the shootings, Jackson announced that all new cases in which police actions cause a death, the county prosecutor would determine whether there will be criminal charges. The move was one based on transparency, Jackson said.

In the past, when a citizen was killed, a team of city homicide detectives, forensic experts and internal affairs investigators would meet at the scene with the city prosecutor.

Based on initial evidence, the city prosecutor would decide whether to give officers a Miranda warning essential in criminal cases. Then, within six months, the investigators would decide whether to send the case to the county prosecutor.

The new process cuts out city investigators and frees them up to concentrate on the administrative review process – which for legal reasons has to be kept separate from the any criminal investigation.

That will mean investigations will end up where they are now – with county prosecutors.

McGinty's office has had the case since Attorney General Mike DeWine's office turned over his comprehensive investigation – complete with animated reenactments and hundreds of hours of video interviews with officers – in February.

McGinty has always said a grand jury would have the final say on whether the actions of Cleveland police officers or supervisors should be deemed criminal.

The prosecutor's staff has reviewed more than 25,000 pages of documents regarding the chase and shooting, done additional investigation and consulted with two law enforcement experts to look at the investigation, the pursuit and the use of force, spokesman Joe Frolik said.

"Given the high degree of public interest," Frolik said. "Outside eyes seemed appropriate."