CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Police Department is investigating one of its officers seen on surveillance video walking into the bar and away from the mass shooting in the Warehouse District earlier this month.
In the video released by Barley House, the officer goes into the bar during the chaos on July 9 and doesn’t appear to help victims right away.
According to the police union president, the officer was working a side job but didn’t have permission to.
The Cleveland Police officer is standing near the door, moonlighting as security for the establishment.
The officer appears to tense up 11 seconds into the video; he then turns his head and goes into the bar as bar patrons flee from the direction of the gunshots and duck for cover.
The surveillance video is silent, but you can hear multiple gunshots from the incident in the police body camera video.
Nine people were wounded when the gunman allegedly fired into the crowd. You can see in the video several people were hurt, including a man hopping on one foot.
The officer moonlighting returns outside about 30 seconds later. As other officers run up to help the injured, the surveillance video shows the moonlighting officer shifting around in front of the Barley House before appearing to pull out his radio and say something on it.
“When he comes out, he should render aid as well as any other officer,” said Kalfani Ture.
Ture is a criminal justice associate professor at Widener University in Pennsylvania.
He is also a former police officer.
“It just seemed that he exited the bar at a rate sort of casual state more as an observer as opposed to a law enforcement officer,” Ture said.
Police Union President Jeff Follmer said their officer took cover inside and then went back outside, rendering aid to victims.
Follmer said the officer has less than two years with the division, and this was the first time he heard gunfire up close.
Ture said he isn’t as concerned with the officer retreating into the building.
“An officer can only respond to a crisis when, in fact, he or she or they have guaranteed their own sort of security,” Ture said.
In a separate case, a Cleveland police officer is accused of failing to help a fellow officer after a shooting outside a nightclub in January.
Body camera video shows a sergeant calling for help after shooting a man.
The off-duty sergeant, who was working at Belinda’s, is charged with dereliction of duty.
In the Barely House case, police launched an internal investigation.
News 5 was told the safety director is aware.
"You can put on one side here whether there’s enough manpower in law enforcement in Cleveland. What’s the crisis? How do we resolve the crisis of getting officers qualified individuals in the door and retaining them, but then who are we retaining? I think this is a quality control issue,” Ture said.
Ture says the officer should be investigated for his actions. Cleveland Police can have secondary employment as long as it doesn’t interfere with their job and there’s no conflict of interest.
Follmer said officers are supposed to get permission so the city knows where they are, and the officer at Barley House didn’t have permission.
“That’s a tough situation, I think, both morally and ethically, for this particular officer,” Ture said.
The union president said officers worked heroically to save lives that night and gather information to make a quick arrest.
As far as what discipline the officer could face, police said it depends on what the investigation finds.
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