CLEVELAND — Nearly 24 hours have passed and there have been no arrests or indication of any leads in the shooting of a Cleveland police detective.
The detective is recovering at Metro and is said to be doing well.
On Thursday, a city source identified the detective as Mark Bahrijczuk.
News 5 Investigators asked to speak with Mayor Bibb and Police Chief Drummond today, but neither would.
City Council Public Safety Chair Mike Polensek says this could have been far more serious.
News 5 Investigators obtained new video from a gas station of the crash involving two officers moments after the shooting.
You see patrol car after patrol car going through the intersection at Carnegie and East 30th toward the shooting scene on Cedar Avenue.
Cleveland police have only shared one picture of two of the four people they’re searching for after they believe the one in orange shot the detective in the arm and thigh.
"The officer is doing well, and thank goodness,” Councilman Mike Polensek said.
The 28-year-old detective was working the stolen Kia and Hyundai cases when he and another came up to a Kia Forte with no plates at an apartment complex and were met with gunfire as the four people inside the car bailed out.
The officer believed four shots were fired, Chief Drummond said Tuesday night.
Police recovered three guns.
Polensek says this could have been far more serious.
“Cause he was carrying a large capacity magazine, and so at the end of the day, it could have been more than one officer shot or it could have been a fatal shot,” Polensek said.
Polsensek said the shooting Tuesday evening is a step up in the violence we’ve seen with the Kia and Hyundai car thefts, and the first he’s heard of car thieves firing at police.
"Thank God he is safe, that he will recover, but we've got to hold those individuals accountable for what they did,” Polensek said.
You’re asked to call detectives at 216-623-5464 if you can help. Anonymous information can be provided by calling Crimestoppers at 216-25-CRIME and a cash reward of up to $5,000.00 may be available, according to police.
Polensek told News 5 that the city might consider filing a lawsuit against TikTok for sparking the car theft trend, as videos showing how to quickly and easily hotwire certain Kias and Hyundais were initially propagated on the ubiquitous social media video-sharing platform.
RELATED: City of Cleveland may take legal action against TikTok for 'aiding and abetting' car thefts
Earlier this month, Cleveland filed a federal lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai themselves, citing their failure to install industry-standard anti-theft devices, which has left the vehicles especially prone to theft.
Watch our report on that litigation below:
RELATED: 'It has to stop now': Cleveland sues Hyundai, Kia after surge in car thefts, drains public resources
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
