For first time, community holds rally for Cleveland officers involved in deadly chase/shooting

CLEVELAND - Community members held a rally in support of the Cleveland Police Department as 13 officers remain on administrative leave, involved in the investigation of the November 29th deadly chase and shooting.

Somewhere near 50 people attended the "Community Peace & Prayer Rally for Peace Officers in our Community," which began at 5 p.m. on Sunday at the Cleveland Police Department's Second District headquarters on Fulton Road.

Pastor Angel Arroyo Jr., who is director of .COM Ministry and host of the rally, said no police officers or union officials were directly invited, but were welcomed as the community showed their support.

"We want them to know that we support them for sacrificing their lives so we can feel safe. This event that happened November 2012 is tragic and has brought great pressure and separation on our city officials," Arroyo Jr. said. "But we want them to know the citizens support them and want them to continue to go out daily without hesitation of doing their job to keep us safe."

Signs held in the air and loud applauses from words said on a bull horn, it was the first time a group outside of the police union, publicly rallied in support of the department.  The rallying comes after Tuesday's investigation findings and Friday, when Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released even more information on the case including several surveillance videos and an animation recreating the final scenes of November's chase.

Arroyo said, "With the Attorney General releasing the facts that they have about the situation and then the union president coming out and speaking about how the moral of the officers is down, [it] really sparked a fire inside of me to say you know what, 'If these officers are feeling down but go out daily and want to fight for our safety, then you know what, we need to let them know if you're down, we support you."

"I just feel that victims always get to seem to get a voice and I think for the police, it's about time they get a voice," said Sandra Hickey, who traveled from Cleveland's West Side to be a part of the rally.

Clergy members who attended the rally bowed their heads and said prayers together -- both for the officers involved and the families who were touched by the tragic events.

Cleveland Union President, Jeff Follmer, was also in attendance Sunday.  He wouldn't comment much on the recent videos and animation released but said on the rally, "It is nice to be here in an atmosphere where there are still a lot of supporters of the Cleveland police."