Impatient crowd implores NAACP, East Cleveland mayor and police chief for justice in Nov. 29 Cleveland police shooting (Plain Dealer article where community members, victims family attend Cleveland NAACP forum on 137 bullets shooting of Malissa Williams and Timothy Ray Russell (both pictured) at Shaw High School Friday evening. Before the forum community activists, led by Art McKoy, Donna Walker Brown, Imperial Women Representative Genevieve Mitchell and Khalid Samad, protested in front of Shaw High School demanding that local authorities and police, Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid, and county prosecutor Tim McGinty step aside to ensure a neutral investigation and allow the FBI to take total control over the case)
Martha Williams sobs as she's comforted by Genevieve Mitchell after Williams spoke at a forum against the use of deadly force. The session was put on by the NAACP and the city of East Cleveland December 14, 2012. Williams's daughter, Malissa, and Timothy Russell were killed by Cleveland police in a chase that took them to East Cleveland. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)
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EAST CLEVELAND -- Impatient and irritated citizens, upset that little information has been released in the two weeks since a man and woman died in a police shooting following a high-speed chase, spoke angrily Friday night at a forum sponsored by the NAACP.
Many of the 175 who attended the meeting at Shaw High School in East Cleveland were family members who wondered aloud why information from law officials has been so sparse and slow.
The Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation is assisting the East Cleveland Police Department in unraveling what happened on Nov. 29 in the 26 minutes between when Cleveland officers allegedly heard a gunshot outside the Justice Center and Timothy Russell, 43, and Malissa Williams, 30, died in their car in a hail of bullets in a middle school parking lot in East Cleveland. Thirteen Cleveland police officers fired 137 shots at the car after a high-speed chase.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner said Russell was struck 23 times, and Williams 24.
Impatience with the investigation was evident before the start of the 6 p.m. forum as several community leaders held a press conference outside the school to protest the way the case is being investigated.
"Investigators are keeping quiet hoping people will calm down, and down the road the case will be whitewashed," said Earnest Harris, president of Black on Black Crime. "But the truth about this is 13 officers fired 137 shots at two people who didn't have firearms. This is the straw that broke the camel's back...the camel has no more back to break."
At the meeting East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton, East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts and NAACP president-elect Rev. Hilton Smith urged patience with the ongoing investigation. But audience members did not want to wait.
The first person to speak, Michelle Russell -- Timothy's sister -- asked if the officer involved in the initial chase of her brother was questioned by investigators, and involved in the shooting. She also asked why gun residue tests are taking so long.
Spotts and East Cleveland Det. Sgt. Scott Gardner said the officer had been questioned, but was not one of the shooters.
Spotts warned that his answer about the medical examiner's work would not be popular but gun residue testing had to be verified several times before final results could be released.
Trina Williams -- Malissa's cousin -- asked why a helicopter was not used to help police.
Spotts said Cleveland's police helicopter was grounded because no one trained to fly it was available at the time. He added that "even if the helicopter had been up in the air, I'm not sure it would have helped."
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