East Cleveland Councilwoman calls police chase, shooting 'murder'

EAST CLEVELAND - An East Cleveland City Councilwoman said Tuesday that the deadly Cleveland police chase that ended in her city was the "wild, wild west coming straight down Euclid."

Councilwoman Barbara Thomas has been critical of the chase from the start. At a December council meeting, she said it should have been stopped before it got to East Cleveland.

On Tuesday, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released the report on the investigation and pointed to a "systemic failure" in the Cleveland Police Dept.

"I think it was deplorable," Thomas said.  "I think it was a massacre."

The report concluded that police thought their own lives were in danger when they shot and killed the two people they had been chasing.

"I am from labor," Thomas said, "and I believe in having the police, the firemen, all our safety people around that can protect us and keep us safe. But in this instance, you killed them. You actually murdered them. That was murder."