Group calls for Cuyahoga County prosecutor to step aside from Cleveland police shooting case

CLEVELAND - A grassroots organization of faith and community-based groups is asking Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty to recuse himself from the Cleveland police shooting case.

On Tuesday, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine detailed the investigation into the case, a police chase that turned deadly when the two people being chased were shot and killed by police.  DeWine said it shows a "systemic failure" in the Cleveland Police Department.  McGinty will look at the report and present the findings to a grand jury.

The Task Force for Community Mobilization issued a statement saying they question McGinty's objectivity for the following reasons:

1. He has a close and well documented relationship with the police department.

2. As an assistant prosecutor, he "maliciously" prosecuted Michael Green who was found guilty. The conviction was overturned after it was discovered that evidence had been suppressed.

3. As a judge, he issued a search warrant in the case of 15-year-old Brandon McCloud who was killed when detectives showed up at his house with a search warrant, not an arrest warrant, and the teenager was killed by (a) detective. The warrant shown to the young man's grandmother was not a signed warrant.

At a news conference on Thursday, members of the task force also said they're not satisfied with DeWine's report.

"The attorney general stated there was a breakdown in the system," Task Force chairman Khalid Samad said. "You cannot charge the system with being at fault for the death of these two individuals nor can the system be blamed for what may be any violation or alleged violation on behalf of police officers. So we felt that was the easy way out."

The organization is asking the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Attorney General's Office to make sure that the officers involved in the shooting are held accountable.

"Clearly this is the worst shooting that we know of in the history of the United States of America," Samad said. "The most cars. The most shots fired and the most shots fired by one police officer in the history of the United States. We have to bring the federal government in. We have to. We have no choice."