Pictured is Euclid police fatal shooting victim Luke Stewart
ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4.8 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS-COM, CLEVELAND Ohio- The White Euclid, Ohio cop that gunned down 23- year- old resident Luke Stewart, who was Black and unarmed, will not face criminal charges, a Cuyahoga County grand jury determined on Tuesday, a controversial no bill (no indictment) that comes just eight days after greater Cleveland community activists, led by Black Lives Matter Cleveland, temporarily shut down a Euclid City Council meeting after city council and the mayor ignored their concerns relative to what they say is clearly excessive force by police.
Euclid police officer Matthew Rhodes was not indicted by the largely White grand jury for fatally shooting Stewart, an unarmed Black, which is routine in Cuyahoga County, from the fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by Cleveland police in 2014 to a host of other Cleveland police killings in the past five years, including Tanisha Anderson, Malissa Williams, Timothy Russell, and aspiring rapper Kenneth Smith.
"That was my son and we want justice," said Stewart's mother, Mary Stewart, to ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com editor-in-chief Kathy Wray Coleman at the city council sit-in rally last Monday at Euclid City Hall.
His sister, Tierra Stewart, told ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com that "we need officer Mathew Rhodes off the streets."
Euclid is a middle class Cleveland suburb of some 50,000 residents that is roughly 60 percent Black.
An attorney for the Stewart family said Tuesday that the young man's family members had hoped grand jury proceedings would be fair, but to no avail.
The office of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who, among others, is seeking the Republican nomination for governor next year, handled the investigation and presented the case to the grand jury after Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley passed on investigating the matter, partly because of political implications, sources said Tuesday.
O'Malley ousted then county prosecutor Tim McGinty in an election last year and campaigned, in part, on his posture that the office of the Ohio attorney general investigate such controversial shootings by police, although it is also within his job purview to take such cases before grand juries.
A Democrat like O'Malley, McGinty, a retired common pleas judge, fell into disfavor with the Black community and Black leaders, led by 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, regarding impropriety in the grand jury process as to the Rice shooting, and his undue support of cops that arbitrarily kill Black people.
Cuyahoga County includes the cities of Cleveland and Euclid, among other cities, villages and townships, and is 29 percent Black.
Rhodes and his partner, both of them still employed and on the job, were purportedly investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle in the area of South Lakeshore Boulevard and East 215th Street in March.
As Stewart allegedly tried to pull away the officers allegedly tried to pull him from the car, Rhodes then jumping into the moving car and shooting the young Black man five times.
Police say that Stewart allegedly tried to run them over with his car, a claim his family members and attorneys say they believe is bogus.
The grand jury determination as to the Stewart killing comes on the heels of the beating by a White Euclid police officer on Aug. 12 of unarmed Black motorist Richard Hubbard, 25, whom police said had a suspended driver's license.
A video of that incident went viral.
It was a routine traffic stop, police said of Hubbard's beating, ignoring the fact that the Black young man was beaten unmercifully, his face bruised, and swollen.
Officer Michael Amiott, who is suspended without pay pending the outcome of external and internal proceedings, is seen on the dash cam punching Hubbard several times while he was on the ground, with his partner and other witnesses watching.
Hubbard was arrested and taken to the Cuyahoga County Jail and ultimately posted bond on charges of driving under suspension and resisting arrest, charges he denies.
He now says he fears police.
ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com , Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4.8 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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