CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A 19 News Crime Alert after two shootings in 24 hours not far from the Cleveland Police Fourth District Police Station.
You would think a police department in the area would be a deterrent for violent crime.
But as 19 News found out, it’s not stopping some bold criminals from shooting and even killing someone just steps away from the Cleveland Division of Police’s front door on Kinsman Road and East 93rd Street.
Michael D. Clemons has lived on the same street near the police station since moving her in 1965 with his parents, “They crazy. What else could it be? Got to be crazy to shoot right in their (police) backyard. They know they’re coming.”
He even witnessed the Cleveland Police Fourth District station being built from his home.
This former Marine is disgusted that someone shot and killed a man in the parking lot of a convenience store on a busy street, in broad daylight, in what he says is the backyard of the Fourth District Police station.
“Because they (suspects) don’t give a damn. They have no respect. That’s how they were raised,” Clemons told 19 News.
Another brazen crime also happened in the past 24 hours.
Three teenagers ages 14, 15, and 16 were shot and injured as they walked in the area of East 93rd Street and Meech Avenue by the railroad tracks.
The fact that the Fourth District Police station is nearby wasn’t a deterrent for the person who committed the drive-by.
“It doesn’t make no sense,” Clemons said.
Neighbors say a makeshift memorial with balloons, flowers, notes of sympathy, and teddy bears – is just one block south of the police station. It’s for a man shot and killed as he tried to break up two women fighting a week ago.
What no one can understand is whether this is just a sign of the times and/or blatant disrespect for human life and the authority of the police?
Cleveland Police told 19 News, “That area has a lot of activity. There are a lot of shootings, etc. There have been no arrests in the two most recent cases. Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers of Cuyahoga County at 216-252-7463.