Investigation into force used during arrest of man accused of killing Cleveland officer

CLEVELAND (WJW) — The FOX 8 I-Team has learned police are investigating the force used against the man arrested for killing Cleveland police officer Jamieson Ritter.

The review even includes a look at what officer Ritter did before he was killed.

We uncovered an internal investigation into what happened around the shooting death of the officer.

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It happened on the city’s east side just after midnight on July 4. Police arrested a man after a struggle in the street. Now, a review has begun concerning the use of force against the suspect, and that review includes covering the actions of officer Ritter.

The I-Team went to the headquarters of the Cleveland police union. Union President Andy Gasiewski told us, officers did not shoot the suspect, and they did not beat him.

He said, “There’s no second-guessing them. They did what they had to do.”

Gasiewski told us, the use-of-force review is standard practice. But, this comes after an officer was murdered. And, the union president points out, the suspect had a gun and machetes, and he was already wanted for a shooting.

Yet, now, officers have to explain what they did and why.

“It’s very difficult,” Gasiewski said. “This is what society has put, restrictions, on officers, of being transparent. This was a full fight. This male did not care for anyone’s life.”

For years, Cleveland police have been under federal watch. The Department of Justice has been overseeing reform in policies and procedures and training. In fact, anytime Cleveland police pull their guns, they have to fill out a form. And, they have to do that whether they fire shots, or not.
We also went to police headquarters.

We said to Sgt. Freddy Diaz, “An accused cop-killer fights with police, but then police officers get investigated.”

He responded, “So, this is part of a standard procedure.”

Sgt. Diaz outlined the review of all officers at the scene including Jamieson Ritter.

“A use-of-force can mean a takedown, grabbing a suspect and taking him down to the ground,” he said. “All the way up to using deadly force. So, all that part has to be reviewed to make sure officers are in compliance with our policies. However, it is something that is difficult because we did lose an officer.”

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The internal review will also look at why police did not fire shots during the encounter.

There’s a chance the review could lead to internal discipline if an officer, somehow, violated policy. However, any findings are a long way off.

The police union says, the only second-guessing should be asking why anyone would kill an officer?

“So, the bad guys have no rules and regulations. And, the officers have a ton of rules and regulations,” Andy Gasiewski said.

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