The defense rest: Greater Cleveland community activists to protest on two separate occasions on May 4 at 10 am, and two hours after any Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo manslaughter verdict by Judge O'Donnell on Lakeside Avenue at Justice Center...Activists call for a conviction....Tamir Rice family to attend May 4 rally....Brelo gunned down two unarmed Blacks with 49 bullets....Call Art McKoy at (216) 253-4070 for more information....By Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leader in Black digital news

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog, Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman is  a community activist and 22- year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper.  (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). 

Cuyahoga County Court of
Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Greater Cleveland community activists groups will protest at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center on Lakeside Avenue in downtown Cleveland on two occasions, on Monday, May 4 at 10 am, and two hours after any manslaughter verdict of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo.

On Thursday, the defense rested, and closing arguments are set for Tuesday, May 5. 

The verdict rally will go on, organizers said, regardless of the verdict by Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, who is hearing the case in lieu of a jury per Brelo's request.(Editor's note: Brelo is on trial at the Justice Center in courtroom 18D).

Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo

Organizing groups include Black on Black Crime, the Black Man's Army, Puncture the Silence, the Imperial Women Coalition, the Carl Stokes Brigade, Revolution Books, and the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network. Call Art McKoy at (216)  253-4070 for more information.

Community activist Art McKoy

"We will protest and we want justice," said community activist Art McKoy. "We want Michael Brelo convicted."

McKoy said also that the family of 12-year-old Cleveland police shooting victim Tamir Rice will also attend the rally on Monday, May 4. 

Mayor Frank Jackson is calling for calm as an anxious community awaits a decision on the verdict.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson

Jackson's call for peace comes as rioting broke out last week in Baltimore, Maryland around the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray last month while in police custody.

Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell tossed out two gun specifications charges against Brelo but denied defense counsel's Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal to dismiss the manslaughter charges. 

Brelo, who is White, fired 49 of the 137 shots fired by a total of 13-non Black Cleveland cops who gunned down unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams, 30, and Timothy Russell, 43, following a high speed car chase in 2012 that began in downtown Cleveland and ended in a middle school parking lot in neighboring East Cleveland. He now faces potential convictions on two counts of voluntary manslaughter, and is currently suspended without pay pending the outcome of his trial. 

No gun was found at the deadly scene.

The other 12 Cleveland police officers that did the shooting, 11 White and one Hispanic, were not charged with crimes per the support of county prosecutor Tim McGinty, and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, both of them of whom are White also, and of whom were endorsed by local and state police unions.

 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

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