Cleveland Cop Verdict: Multiple Arrests as Protests Continue Into Evening - East Idaho News

Cleveland Cop Verdict: Multiple Arrests as Protests Continue Into Evening

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getty 5.24.15 clevelandprotests?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1432476093469Protesters outside of Tower City in Public Square demonstrate in reaction to Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo being acquitted of manslaughter charges after he shot two people at the end of a 2012 car chase in which officers fired 137 shots. Photo by Ricky Rhodes/Getty Images(CLEVELAND) — Largely peaceful demonstrations following the acquittal of a Cleveland police officer in the killing of an unarmed couple continued Saturday evening, as some groups of people turned more rowdy and police said there were multiple arrests.

Cleveland police made 71 arrests among the protests, police chief Calvin Williams said during a news conference Sunday.

Williams added that the protests on Saturday were largely peaceful, and that city police were not armed with riot gear.

“We only moved in to make arrests when things got violent and protesters refused to disperse,” he said.

Michael Brelo, 31, was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter and a lesser charge of felonious assault in the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Prosecutors said Brelo was one of 13 officers who fired 137 times into the couple’s car in the November 2012 shooting.

Among those arrested Saturday night was a man was charged with assault after he allegedly injured a patron at Harry Buffalo’s on East Fourth Street when he threw an object through the window, police said.

After a day in which peaceful demonstrators carried signs and chanted after the handed down a not guilty verdict, police reported that some protesters were turning “disruptive.”

The protests continued into the evening, when a crowd temporarily blocked downtown street intersections and chanted anti-police slogans. Demonstrators also marched past fans getting out of a Cleveland Indians-Cincinnati Reds game, adding to the congestion throughout the area.


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