By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper
CLEVELAND,Ohio- Community activists will hold a 6 pm to 6 am camp-out at the corner of E. 93rd St and Prince Ave. on Cleveland's east side near the site where Jazmine Trotter, 20 (pictured), was raped and murdered last week at an abandoned house, which is a mile from the site at E. 93 St. and Bessemer Ave. where Christine Malon (pictured), 45, was raped and murdered, also last week. An abduction attempt last week of of a third Black woman at E. 66th St. has community activists upset too.
Sponsoring groups include Survivors/Victims Of Tragedy, The Imperial Women and Black on Black Crime Inc. For more information contact Judy Martin at 216-990-0679, Kathy Wray Coleman at 216-659-0473 or Art McKoy at 216-253-4070.
Activists will also hold a press conference at 7:30 pm at the camping site to to bring awareness to violence against women, Black women in particular, since data show that they are targeted at a higher rate than any other ethic group in Cleveland, including the unprecedented rape and murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave.
Those women were the victims of convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, 52, whose 2011 convictions, including the death penalty, are on appeal.
City officials cannot confirm that a serial killer is not on the lose because only one suspect is in custody. And community activists say that since city officials and police had Sowell in custody in 2008 and released him to murder the last of he 11 Imperial Ave,. they do not trust Cleveland police to again try to mislead the community, whether deliberate or through negligence and incompetence.
Jerome Olgletree, a suspect in Totter's murder, has been charged with aggravated murder and will be arraigned on April 5.
At a press conference earlier today Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath, who was chief when the 11 Imperial Ave. victims were murdered, said the murders are unrelated while flanked by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson , who is up for reelection this year as he was when the Imperial Ave. bodies were found at Sowell's Imperial Ave. home in October 2009.
Convicted Serial Killer
Anthony Sowell, also known as The Cleveland Strangler. Sowell, sits on death row after convictions in 2011 on 82 of 83 counts including aggravated murder of 11 Black women at his home on Imperial Ave. on Cleveland's majority Black east side. His convictions are on appeal before the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals.
Eleven Black women (shown below) were strangled and murdered on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's predominantly Black east side, unprecedented murders that rocked the largely Black city of some 400,000 people. Six were murdered after Convicted Serial Killer Anthony Sowell, 52, was captured in 2008 and then released from custody, Cleveland city officials admit. Their remains were uncovered beginning on Oct 29, 2009 and Sowell, who was convicted of 82 of 83 counts including multiple counts of aggravated murder, sits on death row as his 2011 convictions are on appeal before the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals.
The Imperial Avenue Women
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