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East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton Speaks About Deadly Police Shooting

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton and others pray near the spot where Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were killed.
East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton and others pray near the spot where Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were killed.

Norton says two East Cleveland detectives will work with the state Bureau of Criminal Investigations and the county to investigate.

NORTON: "We hope that we'll have a recreation of the scene, a recreation of the shooting, a recreation of the chase path, as well as video from any surveillance camera -- whether it's an automated traffic enforcement camera, an RTA surveillance camera, a business security camera, a home security camera. We want to pull anything, including the radio chatter from all the communications dispatched of that night and those 20 minutes, to tell the truth about what happened."

The East Cleveland mayor says he hopes there are lessons to learn from the shooting.

NORTON: "But again, our role is to find out the truth. And find out what happened, and then lessons learned from that. We owe an obligation to the family members, we owe an obligation to the community, we owe an obligation to law enforcement to improve it so this never happens again."

Norton spoke at a Sunday afternoon prayer service held at the site of the shooting. He says he's reached out to the families of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were killed in a hail of bullets near Heritage Middle School. Timothy Russell's funeral was held this weekend in Twinsburg.

Nick Castele was a senior reporter covering politics and government for Ideastream Public Media. He worked as a reporter for Ideastream from 2012-2022.