This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project - Cleveland, a nonprofit news team covering Ohio’s criminal justice systems, and News 5 Cleveland. Sign up for The Marshall Project’s Cleveland newsletter and Facebook Group.
Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Deputy Isen Vajusi pointed a rifle out a window while speeding more than 100 mph at times during a December 2024 chase of a stolen car, bodycam footage shows.
Watch the footage below:
Once the fleeing car crashed and flipped into a telephone pole, Vajusi jumped out, pointed his rifle at one suspect and shouted numerous vulgarities. “We don’t want to kill people,” Vajusi yelled, according to a review of the footage by The Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 Cleveland.
He later boasted about the arrest: “We got the dudes. We got the car. We didn’t shoot anybody. It can’t get any better than this. … I’m glad I didn’t have to use my gun this time.”
Efforts to reach Vajusi and Deputy Joshua Varga, who was driving the car, were unsuccessful. Sheriff Harold Pretel declined an interview. He would not answer specific questions, like whether the chase violated the pursuit policy or whether he had viewed the video.
“We stand behind our pursuit policy, which prioritizes the safety of both the public and our deputies,” a statement said. “This policy allows deputies to respond quickly to serious threats while minimizing risks. The policy also reflects our commitment to protecting our community in a responsible and effective manner.”
The tactics Vajusi and Varga used in the chase highlight growing concerns about how the controversial Downtown Safety Patrol unit operates on the same streets where Cleveland police are held to higher standards to prevent abuse under a federal consent decree.
Jeff Wenninger, a Cleveland-area expert on police tactics, called the bodycam footage troubling and said deputies lack proper training. The deputies put the public at risk by breaking best practices, especially by trying to ram a fleeing car while traveling at high speed, he said.
“This was sloppy, unsafe, and shows a lack of discipline,” said Wenninger, the founder and CEO of Law Enforcement Consultants LLC. “They were cowboys. It’s not how policing is best done today in the modern era.”
For more than eight months, The Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 Cleveland have been examining how the Downtown unit operates.
The sheriff announced plans to expand the Downtown unit countywide at a Cuyahoga County Council meeting in November 2024.
Despite growing concerns over potential liability and costs after several shootings and a high-speed chase that killed a bystander, Cuyahoga County Council members backed down months ago from threats of suspending the patrol.
Cuyahoga County Councilman Mike Gallagher, chair of the county’s Public Safety Committee, said the deputies’ actions during the pursuit are troubling.
“Everything about the Downtown Safety Patrol has been rushed,” he said. “It was not well-thought-out. It is disturbing that lives are being put at risk.”
Amid a slew of public record requests, a Cuyahoga County official mistakenly sent the December chase footage to the news outlets.
The chase started after Vajusi and Varga said they heard gunshots near East 13th Street and Hamilton Avenue.
The deputies saw a person with a handgun get inside a blue Kia Optima. Deputies tried to stop the car, but it fled, according to a sheriff’s incident report. At first, Vajusi held his pistol in his right hand before he switched to the rifle.
When the stolen car slowed below 60 mph, deputies tried a maneuver (Pursuit Intervention Technique) designed to turn vehicles sideways to make them stop, the report stated.
The bodycam video shows Vajusi telling a dispatcher their location. Varga is heard saying their speed aloud, as high as 107 mph. Six seconds after he said 97 mph, Varga told Vajusi he was “attempting a PIT” to stop the car. It failed.
“Be careful pitting at these high speeds, bro,” Vajusi said.
Varga rammed the car again. “You got it. Take them out,” Vajusi said.
The car continued to flee but rolled over. As Vajusi ran toward the car with the rifle, someone opened the passenger door.
“Keep fucking looking at me, bitch,” Vajusi yelled.
Varga screamed: “Let me see your fucking hands, asshole.”
The chase lasted more than five minutes. Deputies arrested two young men, a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old, and found two handguns in the car, the incident report said.
The department’s pursuit policy states that deputies must obtain supervisor approval before initiating a pursuit or using pursuit intervention tactics, and that ramming a fleeing vehicle should be a last resort.
Bodycam footage does not show Varga or Vajusi getting permission to chase or ram the car.
Wenninger called it alarming for Vajusi to point the rifle out the window and a “blatant disregard” for violating the pursuit policy. Even with adrenaline rushing, deputies should have treated people with respect, as inflammatory language often escalates situations, he said.
“Their crude language and unprofessional barking of commands made it clear they were operating with no discipline, no composure and no regard for proper tactics,” he said.
The chase is not Vajusi’s first controversial incident with a gun.
The Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 Cleveland reported in June that Vajusi was forced off a suburban police force after he failed field training. The force found that he lacked confidence, had difficulty in stressful situations and “hesitates because he is afraid of making a mistake.”
Two months before the December 2024 chase, Vajusi had shot a teenager in the leg. This May, he fired rounds at another teenager in Cleveland. After the May shooting, Vajusi was temporarily assigned to the Electronic Monitoring Unit, county records show.
On July 5, a Facebook post by the Cleveland police K9 Unit praised Vajusi for helping arrest three men with guns in a stolen car. The news outlets asked about Vajusi’s status, and were told that he was assigned back to the Downtown unit for one case, but was still with the Electronic Monitoring Unit.
On Aug. 19, Kelly Woodard, the county’s director of communications, wrote that Vajusi is back with the Downtown unit, but on administrative duty.
