Cleveland Police and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department released body camera footage of a pursuit that lasted nearly an hour and ended in a shooting last week.
On Jan. 7, officers received reports of three carjackings around 9 p.m. on West 150th Street. While attempting to locate the suspect, police received two more reports of carjackings on the east side, one on Quimby Avenue and another near the intersection of East 79th Street and Superior Avenue.
RELATED: Cleveland pursuit lasts almost an hour; ends with 1 man shot, injured by officers
At a press conference last Wednesday, Cleveland Police Chief Annie Todd said the suspect fled when officers located one of the stolen vehicles near the Fifth District. They pursued through multiple districts for almost an hour, briefly crossing into Shaker Heights.
During the pursuit, the 38-year-old driver of the stolen black Chevy Impala was waving a firearm out of the vehicle's window and proceeded to fire shots at the officers.
"Is that a gun? He got no bullets left, man," one officer is heard saying in the body camera footage.
"He's definitely got a gun. He just pointed it at us," another said.
Deputies with the sheriff's office successfully deployed spike strips, but the suspect's vehicle did not stop and continued for another 15 to 20 minutes on its rims.
Even the deputies were surprised.
"I don't know how he's still moving," one deputy is heard saying on the body cam footage.
Finally, a sheriff's deputy asked to use a pit maneuver to stop the suspect.
"Permission for us to make contact, stop this and make contact, please? I'll end it," the deputy said in the footage.
Once the deputy gets the OK, he crashes into the suspect's vehicle on South Moreland Avenue.
Then, more than a dozen shots were fired.
Two deputies and two Cleveland officers fired shots; police say the suspect fired at them, but the videos we reviewed do not give a clear angle of that. However, officers did find a gun.
"Gun, I got the gun. Gun secured," an officer said.
The suspect was identified as 38-year-old Rueben Bell, who News 5 investigators found to have a long criminal history, including federal drug trafficking charges and eight cases in Cuyahoga County.
The most recent was a felony assault conviction in 2021.
On Friday, Bell was charged with three counts of felonious assault, and police said additional charges are expected.
