Cleveland police are looking for a suspect who broke into an elderly couple’s home, forced them to the ground, beat the man with a wooden club and threatened both with a knife before stealing a small amount of cash from the woman’s cookie jar.
At about 10:15 p.m. on Friday, September 21, the man broke into the couple’s home on East 65th Street, near the Slavic Village home where a 94-year-old woman was killed in a home invasion earlier this month.
Police arrived to find the two elderly victims very scared, according to the police report. The woman told police that earlier in the evening, she noticed her motion-activated garage lights went on, which is abnormal.
At about 10:15 p.m., the woman heard something being broken outside, she said. She then saw the side screen door was open, and the light above the door was off. She reached up and screwed the light back in. When the light came on, she saw the suspect poke his head out of the side door.
The woman yelled for the suspect to “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE,” and yelled for the man, she told police. She grabbed a wooden pole and began hitting the suspect with it. The suspect then shoved the couple to the floor. He grabbed the pole from the woman’s hands and beat the man with it.
The woman told police she began yelling at the suspect that the man has a heart condition, and she will give the suspect what she has. The suspect stopped hitting the man and pulled out a knife.
The suspect went to the living room and grabbed the woman’s purse, the report states. He became upset when it didn’t have anything he wanted. The woman then got a strawberry cookie jar containing $45 and give it to the suspect. He then took $15 in cash from the woman’s pocketbook.
The suspect told the couple that if they called the police, “We’ll come back later,” implying that he may have a partner, the report states. The suspect then left the house and walked across E. 65th Ave. toward Fleet Ave.
The suspect is described by police as a black male, 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 8 inches in height, mid-20s to early-30s in age, wearing a black hoodie and black pants.
Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,500 cash reward for any tip that leads to the arrest and indictment of the suspect or suspects in this case.
