Two Cleveland Police officers are facing potential suspensions for improperly firing their weapons at the car of a woman fleeing another shooting a block away in the city’s Glenville neighborhood last March.
That woman, Antwoina Carter, 26, of Cleveland, was killed.
The two patrol officers, Dylan O’Donnell and Amanda Rock, are facing administrative charges through the police department's disciplinary system, according to documents obtained by Ideastream Public Media. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office previously declined to charge the officers criminally.
In two “Pre-disciplinary hearing” letters sent April 25, 2025, the officers were each charged with using “force that was deemed to be not necessary, not proportional and not objectively reasonable” when they fired at Carter’s vehicle.
According to the letter addressed to O'Donnell, an internal affairs investigation showed he fired five times without seeing the driver or verifying they were a threat. In a separate charge, O’Donnell allegedly fired a shot that struck an occupied residence, “creating a risk to the occupants of the residence.”
Investigators found Rock fired four shots at Carter’s vehicle, according to the letter sent to her. One of her rounds was found in a patrol car at the scene.
Each officer faces one Group III charge, the most serious level, for excessive force, plus a Group II charge. Each Group II charge carries a 6-to-10 day suspension and Group III’s are punishable with a minimum 10-day suspension to termination.
Attempts to reach the officer through the union that represents Cleveland patrol officers were not successful.
The department issues pre-disciplinary hearing letters following an investigation by the internal affairs unit. The charges are based on findings from that investigation. In cases like this, where officers face a suspension of more than 10 days, the public safety director’s office makes the decision following a hearing. That hearing is currently scheduled for May 9 for both officers.
It’s been more than a year since Carter died near her mother’s house, following a call to police for assistance in the early hours of March 17. Officers O’Donnell and Rock arrived at the house on Garfield Avenue about an hour later. By then, Carter had left the house.
As officers spoke with her family, Carter was driving down East 105th Street, surveillance and body camera footage released by the department shows.
The video shows a passenger in another vehicle firing at Carter after approaching her vehicle from behind as both drove along East 105th Street.
The officers, who had recently arrived at her mother's home, heard that gunfire, their body camera footage shows. Carter turned right onto Garfield, and her headlights became visible to the officers. The vehicle with the shooter in it continued down 105th.
The officers’ faces are not visible in the videos but, based on their voices, the male officer, O’Donnell, can be seen standing on the sidewalk, next to the patrol vehicle, firing at Carter’s vehicle as it approaches. The other officer, apparently Rock, took cover behind the patrol vehicle and began firing after Carter sideswiped the car on her way past.
The woman at the residence can be heard shouting, “That’s my daughter. You’re shooting at my daughter. That’s my daughter,” as officers were firing at the car.
The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department investigated the shooting for potential criminal charges against the officers, based on Cleveland Police policy.
The results of that investigation went to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office for potential charges. Ideastream Public Media has requested a copy of the sheriff’s report from both the county and city of Cleveland, but has not yet received a copy.
In a letter sent by Prosecutor Michael O’Malley to Sheriff Harold Pretel on February 10, 2025, the prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges against the officers. In his letter, O’Malley said they were both faced with a “split-second decision while under the impression, although mistaken, that the car that was speeding” towards them posed a danger to both officers.
“This review is only concerned with the analysis of the reasonableness of Officer [redacted] and Officer [redacted]’s use of deadly force to determine whether under the United States Constitution and case law a crime was committed by their use of deadly force,” O’Malley wrote. “It does not opine as to any potential internal policy violations, if any.”
The names of the officers involved were initially redacted by both the city and prosecutor’s office because they were initially categorized as victims, because Carter’s vehicle sideswiped their patrol car.
Carter was not found to have fired any rounds at the officers.
In a statement issued March 21, 2024, the medical examiner’s office wrote Carter died from a “gunshot wound of trunk with injuries of heart, lung, major vessel, and spine.”
"Preliminary testing does not indicate that police activity was directly responsible for the decedent's death," wrote Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson.
The medical examiner’s office has not filled an Ideastream request for a copy of the autopsy report.
Two passengers in the car that fired at Carter on East 105th Street — Trinity Ford, 20, of Cleveland, and Christopher Stinson, 19, of Willowick — both pleaded guilty to reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter for Stinson and Ford and felonious assault and improperly discharging a firearm for Stinson. Both were initially charged with murder, but that charge was later dropped.
Stinson was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in prison, court records show. Ford was sentenced to a minimum of four years.
A third defendant, Lashuwndre Coleman, 20, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty to obstructing official business. He received probation.
