BEACHWOOD, Ohio — A Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to indict an officer who discharged his firearm in the Beachwood Place parking lot while in pursuit of a man after an alleged shoplifting incident in June 2019.
The police officer, identified in court records as officer Blake Rogers, was placed on administrative leave after the incident and remains on paid administrative leave, according to Beachwood Mayor Martin Horwitz.
The suspect, later identified as Jaquan Jones, 19, was arrested in July 2019 by an undercover task force comprised of the Cleveland Division of Police Heroin Involved Death Investigation Unit and First District patrol officers, according to a news release from the city of Beachwood.
After the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation completed its investigation, the Ohio Attorney General’s office presented its finding to a grand jury who issued a No Bill, declining to incident Rogers, court records state.
Mayor Horwitz said based on the city’s police procedures manual it can now begin its own internal investigation, something he says he couldn’t do until BCI and the attorney general’s office finished their work.
The investigation is now being handled by the new Beachwood Police Chief Kelly Stillman, who began working for the department 11 days ago.
“I have instructed Chief Stillman to make this a top priority and I am hopeful we will have his department’s report within the next 14 days,” Horwitz said.
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