Nineteen-year-old Black woman sentenced for murdering a White Cleveland cop by Judge John O'Donnell, the Michael Brelo judge...Tamara McLoyd shot and killed officer Shane Bartek on New Years Eve in 2021....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - A 19-year old Black Cleveland area woman convicted earlier this year in connection with the 2021 New Year's Eve carjacking and shooting death of off-duty Cleveland police officer Shane Bartek in the Kamms Corner neighborhood on the city's largely White west side and four other robberies was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday with parole eligibility after 26 years in the murder case. With all of the combined sentences, including the multiple robberies and the killing of Bartek, the woman will be eligible for parole after serving 54 years in prison.
Tamara McLoyd, of Garfield Heights, who was 18 when she shot and killed Bartek, was convicted by a Cuyahoga County common pleas jury on Aug 3 relative to the officer's shooting death, including aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, grand theft, and having weapons under disability She did not take the stand and testify at her own trial.
In addition to Bartek, seven others were victimized by McLoyd, who was convicted of the four armed robberies unrelated to Bartek on Aug 26, also by a common pleas jury.
Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, a pro cop judge who once publicaly bragged when he acquitted former Cleveland cop Michael Brelo of gunning down two unarmed Blacks with 45 bullets in a bench trial that general protests and activists' arrests, said Wednesday during sentencing that the punishment fits the crime. But this time the judge did not bragg, one way or another.
"You are a walking id," O'Donnell told McLoyd after he handed down his sentence. "You threatened, you stole, you robbed, and [you] killed without compunction."
Her attorneys told the jury at trial that she was drunk and high when the incident with Bartek happened.
McLoyd’s defense team argued to the jury that the state did not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt while the prosecution says McLoyd admitted in her interrogation that she robbed and then shot and killed the young police officer, who was single and had no children.
Bartek's mother, grandmother and twin sister named Summer Bartek watched from the overflow room along with a cadre of Cleveland police officers as the celebrated case was handed to jurors for deliberation. On Wednesday, after he was sentenced his mother, Debra Bartek, and his brother Erik Bartek, spoke
"As a mother of a police officer, you know it’s a possibility that your child can be killed on their job; you don’t think on the way to a Cav's game your child will be murdered over a car," his mother said.
Though officer Bartek, 25 at the time of his death and a police officer since August of 2019, was off-duty when he was killed, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb deemed his killing that of an on-duty cop in order that the fallen officer's family could qualify for benefits, including funeral and burial monies.
McLoyd was on probation and under the supervision of the Lorain County Juvenile Court for a robbery conviction when she shot and killed Bartek. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley told reporters that at that time McLoyd had been convicted of robbery as a juvenile in Lorain County Juvenile Court and that she should not have been on the streets, though a judge who had released her from custody obviously disagreed with his stance.
Officer Bartek was shot twice in the back in his car, which was parked outside of his apartment complex. He was pronounced dead after being transported by EMS from the scene of the shooting to Fairview Hospital.
Surveillance video purportedly reveals that McLoyd drove off in the officer's personal car after she shot him. She ultimately delivered the car to Anthony Butler Jr, 28 and of Bedford Heights, the other suspect who was charged with fleeing and receiving stolen property. On June 29, Butler pleaded guilty to the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, failure to comply, receiving stolen property and obstructing official business. and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Police recovered the stolen car following a high speed chase through the city and several other communities.
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