The Cleveland Police Department pursued an agreement with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to take over investigations into fatal police officer shootings, but Mayor Justin Bibb's administration shut down the plan late last year, records released by the attorney general’s office to Ideastream Public Media show.
Since signing a 2019 agreement, the Cleveland Division of Police has sent all fatal shootings by its officers to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department for investigation, which then goes to the county prosecutor’s office for potential charges.
But last spring, Cleveland police explored the possibility of having those investigations handled by the Bureau of Criminal Investigations at the Attorney General's Office instead.
The exchanges between Cleveland police and BCI began with an April 10, 2024, email between then-Superintendent of Internal Affairs Christopher Viland and Mark Kollar, the assistant superintendent of BCI.
In the emails obtained by Ideastream Public Media via a public records request, Kollar mentions speaking with Viland and attaches an example of the memorandum of understanding BCI enters into with police departments across the state.
A week later, Viland replied and asked to see a copy of a completed BCI investigation, adding, “One of the issues we want to improve is the quality of reporting we are receiving.”
The exchanges between Viland and BCI continued through the summer of 2024. In August, Viland raised a concern about a recent change to the agreements between BCI and departments statewide that required a payment from the municipalities to BCI to help cover the cost of investigations.
“The Chief is definitely still interested in moving forward; although no one here can figure out how to make contribution not look like a conflict of interest,” wrote Viland, who had become an assistant public safety director.
BCI agreements also do not include a promise to complete investigations within a particular time limit, which is a requirement under the 2015 Cleveland police consent decree.
Under the agreement with the sheriff’s department, investigations are supposed to be completed within 90 days “absent unusual circumstances.”
In September, the city received a draft agreement from BCI. A section on payment was included, but the amount was left blank, with the payment characterized as a “grant” from the city to cover the two years of the agreement. There was nothing about a deadline for completing investigations.
“We’ve inserted language emphasizing that we remain independent to attempt to address the concern you previously noted,” wrote Kollar from BCI about the payment. “It should hopefully be viewed no differently than an agency paying for an audit by an external agency.”
The Bureau of Criminal Investigations has conducted dozens of police shooting investigations during Attorney General Dave Yost’s time in office. After completing the investigation, cases are presented to a grand jury, which then decides whether to indict the officer. While indictments of officers in Ohio are extremely rare, Yost’s office does post on its website materials from its investigations, including interviews with the officers involved and witnesses.
On Oct. 3, 2024, Viland wrote that “decision makers” were still considering the agreement. Ultimately, he told BCI the city would not be moving forward, but did not provide a definitive reason why to BCI via the emails provided to Ideastream Public Media.
Police shooting in Glenville example of current policy
A few weeks before the police department reached out to BCI, on March 17, 2024, Cleveland police officers were involved in the death of 26-year-old Antwoina Carter. In that case, Carter called for police assistance because her child’s father’s girlfriend was sitting in a car outside her home.
Body camera video shows that about an hour later, as officers were speaking with Carter’s mother at their house on Garfield Avenue in Cleveland, gunshots sound from a few blocks away before a single car, driven by Carter, drives down Garfield toward the officers.
As she approaches, one officer fires at the front of the vehicle, while the other takes cover behind their police cruiser. After Carter passes and side-swipes their cruiser, both officers fire at her vehicle before it crashes.
Carter died of a gunshot wound that injured her heart, lung and spine, according to the medical examiner’s office.
The car carrying a passenger who fired the first shots at Carter continued down 105th Street and never turned down Garfield toward the officers, according to surveillance camera footage provided by the city.
Carter’s mother can be heard on officers’ bodycams screaming, “That’s my daughter. You’re shooting at my daughter,” as officers fire at the car.
The medical examiners’ office has not released Carter’s autopsy but said shortly after the incident, “Preliminary testing does not indicate police activity was directly responsible for the decedent’s death.”
The sheriff's department investigation was not completed until between December 2024 and February of this year — months after the consent decree's 90-day deadline. In February, the county prosecutor informed the city there would be no charges filed against the officers
What is in the sheriff's investigation is not clear. Neither the county nor the city has yet released it. Carter's family has threatened via their attorney to sue it to get it.
The decision to reach out to BCI about taking over fatal use of force investigations was not related to the Garfield Avenue shooting, said city spokesperson Tyler Sinclair.
“Internal discussions about how to proceed with that exploration process started well prior to" Carter's killing in March 2024, Sinclair said. “As the only city in the entire State of Ohio under an active consent decree (in terms of policing), we have an obligation to constantly assess our procedures and policies for ways to improve. Specifically, we must identify an independent and highly competent agency outside of the Cleveland Division of Police in serious use of force investigations.”
Sinclair did not cite a specific reason for deciding not to send investigations to BCI but said the city is “exploring all options that are available.”
Three individuals were charged in connection with Carter's fatal shooting. One pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and discharging a firearm near a prohibited premises and was sentenced to up a minimum of 27 years in prison. A second pleaded guilty to obstructing official business and received probation. The third pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and is waiting for sentencing later this month.
