CLEVELAND — One man was shot during a Drug Enforcement Administration operation in Cleveland, law enforcement sources confirmed to News 5 Wednesday evening.
The shooting happened near East 82nd Street and Decker Avenue. Police personnel were on scene for hours and the location was roped off with yellow crime tape. The intersection re-opened just before 7 p.m. Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the DEA said two people who were not involved in the operation approached the agents while “brandishing a weapon” and that an agent felt threatened. According to the spokesperson, gunfire was exchanged.
“Unrelated to the operation, two subjects approached one of the DEA agents brandishing a weapon at which time the agent felt threatened and there was gunfire exchanged. The subject was hit. The agent was not struck by any gunfire,” Special Agent in Charge Keith Martin said. “At this time, I don't have information on that other than it may have been a carjacking or a robbery. We just don't know.”
The condition of the person who was shot is currently unknown.
The agent was not injured.
“Immediately after the individual was shot, our agents rendered assistance,” Martin said. “I believe we had one of the agents pack the wound and he was taken to the hospital.”
The Cleveland Division of Police will be leading the investigation.
“You can talk to all the folks in the community to see if they know what happened, but we're investigating this and we're getting all the evidence possible to piece together exactly what happened. There has to be some level of calmness to let the process at least do something, to have some of the facts come out before people react in a way that is not conducive to us really moving forward as a community,” Chief Calvin Williams said. “That's what this is all about, protecting the community and the officers that serve day in and day out, and when things like this happen, we’ve got to get to the bottom of what happened. If there are mistakes on either side, then we've got to make sure those mistakes don't happen again. Not saying that there were, but we just have to make sure that folks understand that there's a process.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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