CLEVELAND, OH — Friends of a 26-year-old man killed in a shooting involving an off-duty Cleveland police officer Wednesday night want justice for the victim.
Stanley Martin said he received a call that his friend, Akili Hammond, got into an argument with a large group of people in the parking lot behind Park Place Apartments, on Cleveland’s East Side.
Martin said he arrived and saw Hammond with a handgun at his side and a man in a ski mask holding a rifle.
“Once ‘Kili stepped forward, he came from the side of the car, and he shot ‘Kili,” said Martin. “Kili didn’t threaten him, (or) say, 'I’m going to blow y’all, kill y’all,' nothing like that. He didn’t pick his gun up. His gun stayed at his waist the whole time.”
Martin said he did not know the man with a rifle was an off-duty police officer.
Police dispatch recordings revealed the incident was caught on camera by the city’s Real Time Crime Center.
“The male that’s currently laying in the middle of the street was walking up to the Black GMC armed with a gun,” a Real Time Crime Center employee said on the recording. “And he got shot by the driver of the GMC who was sitting in the driver’s side. Possible automatic weapon.”
Martin said after his friend was shot, the off-duty police officer told him to run.
Bullet holes traced the path he said he ran to safety as the shots whizzed past him.
Martin’s sister believes the entire incident began the night before when she fought another woman.
She said the officer, whose name has not been released, was part of a group that came to the apartments looking for revenge.
“He was down here dressed in regular clothes, a ski mask, grey hoodie, like he was looking for a fight,” said Tai’ler Martin.
The dispatch recording also raises questions about whether Cleveland Police knew an off-duty police officer was at the apartments with a gun.
After a dispatcher broadcast the shooting suspect had a large gun and was last seen wearing a hoodie, another officer can be heard telling dispatchers he was just at the apartments with a man who fit that description and that the man was “off duty” with the “Fourth district.”
“One of our callers kept reporting her brother was an officer and had to shoot somebody,” said the dispatcher.
“You said he shot somebody?” the officer responded.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Cleveland Police said, “We are deeply concerned by the circumstances surrounding this incident and the actions of the individuals involved. The Cleveland Division of Police holds its members to a high standard, both on and off duty.”
A police spokesperson has not responded to an email asking what the officer’s current status was following the shooting.
The investigation is being handled by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department.
"The initial investigation reveals shots were fired on the scene by multiple individuals, one of whom was identified as an off-duty member of the Cleveland Division of Police," a sheriff's department spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Martins hope that the officer is criminally charged.
“I don’t want them to let this plead out as an off-duty officer defending,” said Tai’ler Martin. “No, that’s not what it was. I don’t want nobody to paint that type of picture because that’s not what it was at all.”
