RAPE SUSPECT SOUGHT BY LAKEWOOD POLICE!

[Jim O'Bryan]

Early Sunday Morning, on 8/31/2014 at 4:30 am a male matching the composite drawing, approached a female on Warren Road in Lakewood, produced a silver handgun, and robbed and sexually assaulted a female.

The male described as early 20s, black/hispanic mixed race, 5’10” - 6’, athletic build. Wearing red baseball cap. Baseball shirt with dark sleeves, blue jeans. Subject fled on foot.

ANY INFORMATION CALL LAKEWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT AT 216-521-6773


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[Amy Martin]

I encourage every woman (and those of you who are husbands, fathers, and brothers of women) who is on this board to call, write, or e-mail our Mayor, Police Chief, and Council persons to complain about the delay in letting the citizens of Lakewood know about this crime. They seem to be more interested in protecting Lakewood's image rather than the citizens themselves. And, with our new "bar/restaurant hub" reputation, situations like this are only bound to increase.

The woman in Lakewood was raped on August 31st. The citizens are made aware a full 10 days later. This is unacceptable.

[Danielle Masters]

Thank you Amy, I hadn't even noticed the date. I saw it elsewhere and just read the Sunday part, I didn't even pay attention to the date. That is appalling. I will be drafting an email tonight.

[russell dunn]

Any attack upon a person is wrong, period.

However, there are signals that may be sent by a potential victim that might encourage

a criminal to single them out of the crowd for easy pickings. Lately, it seems that some

sort of headphones or noticeable notification to a predator that a person is not in touch

with their immediate surroundings might be all that it takes. Headphones or earbuds

do remove that ability to hear the sound of an approaching threat to you that is out of

your eyesight.


I do not think that you need carry a gun to be safe.

I do think that using all of your senses might be wise.

Not in any way a comment on the recent crimes.

Just don't look like a victim, no matter your gender.

[m buckley]

Amy, thank you for your post. I hope people will follow up on your request.

On August 31 at approximately 4:30 am a woman was raped at gunpoint in Lakewood Ohio. This was a violent, predatory act that the mayor of Lakewood (who also serves as Safety Director) chose not to disclose for 10 days . While Mayor Summers sat silent protecting Lakewood's image, another woman was raped at gunpoint in the nearby neighborhood of Edgewater in Cleveland. This rape occurred on September 2 at approximately 5:30 am. The victim was out jogging when she was attacked. We don't know if she would have changed her route or would have decided not to jog that day if she had been informed of the attack that took place two days earlier in Lakewood. What we do know is that Mike Summers never afforded her that opportunity. He never gave her or anyone else the chance to make an informed decision. Instead his silence during this period ensured that women who were out jogging early in the morning or walking their dog late at night would remain unaware of the very real threat that was lurking in the streets. I can't help but wonder if the mayor and those in city government who knew of the attack didn't share that information with those they cared about at home.

This is an administration focused on "brand" and commercial interests. It appears that Mayor Summers decided that acknowledging a rape at gunpoint in Lakewood was bad for both "brand" and business so instead he chose to gamble with public safety. His conduct has been reprehensible and I'm sickened by his choice to remain silent . Mark Buckley

[Amy Martin]

Hi Mark,

Your post was spot on. I did write the mayor, Chief, and all members of council and this is the reply I got from the Mayor:

Amy,

Thanks for sharing your concern. Recent crime events give us all pause.

The violent crime of rape, and in the August 31 case, stranger rape (where the victim does not know the assailant) is extremely serious and is treated as such. Fortunately for Lakewood, stranger rape is very rare. In these complex cases, there is always a balance and concern of the investigation (complete information versus partial information), the welfare of the victim, and the interest of the public (inform vs misinform).

We generally rely on help from the media. In this instance, this crime was posted in our media log available the day after its occurrence. There is never any attempt to hide or mislead regarding police activity. The reporter from Cleveland .com was on vacation and did not pick this up from Crimes.com, the place where these are posted. The Victim helped develop a sketch, which took a few days. A weekend intervened, delaying the release further. We did place the sketch on our website and released it to the media on Sept 9th. The second similar crime in Cleveland came to our attention on September 9th.

Could we have shortened this time frame? Probably yes. Should we have? Again, probably yes, but only by a few days. We continue to learn from each event such as this. Each situation is different. Please be assured that we make these decisions in the best interest of public safety first, recognizing the aforementioned balance.

I applaud your taking responsible actions for your safety in your early morning dog walks. Vigilance and preparation are just common sense in today’s world, where ever you may find yourself.

Finally, this government works hard to create conditions that will attract private investment in our city. While some recent notoriety has accompanied a few entertainment investments that serve alcohol, by no means is this a complete story. Four information technology companies, two small law firms, several new retail operations; popcorn, bicycles, graphic arts, soap, drug stores, and numerous others have invested 60 million dollars in Lakewood. Equally important is the retention of several existing commercial office tenants.

All of us understand how important it is that wee we all feel safe in Lakewood. In this day and age, this is a serious challenge. We must not let our guard down for a second. It is my job to ensure that we don’t!



Michael P. Summers

Mayor, City of Lakewood

mike.summers@lakewoodoh.net

216-529-6600

[Jim O'Bryan]

Amy

After reading the mayor's answer I wanted to make sure of the real timeline here, as for
some reason he faults the media for not sitting on his blog or website.

We got the message from Chief Malley, Sep 10, 2014 10:53 AM.

I was in a meeting but converted the document so that we could get it out, withing 45
minutes, please note posting time (we cannot change this as other websites can), it
was then posted and "boosted" through our facebook page.

Violent crimes, with people on the street are very serious.

So serious that the Mayor, City Hall, The Lakewood Police and Fire, and the Schools have a
way to broadcast information immediately to all of our members, and put it on all of our
pages IMMEDIATELY if they cared to. They could put an alert on every page.

Since day one of this project.

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[Amy Martin]

Jim - If it weren't for you and this forum, I would not have known about this rape, as I believe you posted it before I read it on Cleveland.Com. Thank you so much for the wonderful job that you do. I feel that this crime was just as important as a "snow day", and the City has no problem getting those alerts out within seconds of making a decision. I found the Mayor's response woefully ignorant. He must be reading Roger Goodell's playbook, which is obviously backfiring.

"Ignorance is not an Excuse"

[Jim O'Bryan]

Amy

On behalf of all the Observers we thank you for the kind words.

This forum and project were created to give ALL RESIDENTS, Business, Elected Officials,
Non-Profts etc ONE EQUAL SEAT AT THE DISCUSSION TABLE.

So that there is an easy FREE, NON-POLITCAL way to disseminate information quickly and
thoroughly. Between the paper and the website, we can get information if front of over
20,000 in minutes with consistent numbers over 40,000.

This is provide as a FREE SERVICE for over 12 years thanks to the support of
our advertisers and sponsors.

It would seem the biggest drawback to City Leaders and politicians is here, we are all equal.

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[Scott Steinbrick]

While searching the 9/1/2014 media log looking for evidence of the Mayor's claim that the August 31st rape would be annotated... I found this... victim robbed at gunpoint on her own front porch with semi-auto @ 1346 Marlowe!

Let me say I am a VFW and I have never felt the need to carry a gun in Lakewood because I have experiential knowlege regarding the pros and cons... I have opted for the past 20 years to live in a city where I felt the Mayor and law enforment had crime under control.

I guess a daily audit of the Media/Police call log is in order... and if this is actually what it takes for transparancy then as citizens we need to do something about this.

All of us understand how important it is that wee we all feel safe in Lakewood. In this day and age, this is a serious challenge. We must not let our guard down for a second. It is my job to ensure that we don’t!

To the Mayor I don't care about feeling safe I care about being safe. Will we actually have to weed through the media logs everyday? This is very concerning.

Call Type: Robbery 1299 Call No: 142440005
Agency.........: Lakewood Police Department
. Received First Dispatched First At Scene Completed
. 9/01/14 9/01/14 9/01/14 9/01/14
. 35:53 36:53 38:59 1:46:40
Call Location: 1346 Marlowe Av Mod:
. Lakewood
Dispositions: POLICE CASE NUMBER By: 1P211
. Incident Report 1 - 14-005696
.System: SunGard Computer Aided Dispatching 9/05/14
.Progrm: CAD305 MEDIA Log Report Page: 2
********************************************************************************
.Call #: 142440005 continued...
. WRITTEN REPORT By: 1P211
. WRITTEN REPORT By: 1P211
Narrative: comp says she was robbed at gunpoint while sitting on her
. front porch by a blk male wearing a blk and wht striped
. shirt who ran s/b towards det - 10 min delay
. male about 6'0" 25-30 yo w/ blk semi automatic gun
. took comp's michael kors purse and another blk clutch
. male ran s/b but went e/b behind buildings before getting
. to detroit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Amy Martin]

WKYC showed another surveillance video of the West 104th street attack:

http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/cu ... /15730887/

[Scott Steinbrick]

WKYC showed another surveillance video of the West 104th street attack:

http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/cu ... /15730887/

This is the driveway the rapist went into to lie in wait. Approximate address 9752 Lake Ave, Cleveland, Ohio. He traveled roughly .6 miles out and back from this location to the location of the crime (not counting were he came from to hide or where he went after the crime)... He walks westward on Lake (south side of the street)and turns right (south) into the driveway... then follows the victim westward down Lake... and returns running past 9752 Lake Ave, Cleveland, Ohio... towards Don's Lighthouse. I wonder if additional footage is available from Clifton and Lake area?

[Will Brown]

This discussion is fraught with error and misinformation. I went to the pd logs and found no report of an assault and robbery on August 31. I did find a report of a robbery on September 1 on Marlowe, but there was no mention of a sexual assault. I know sexual crimes are a sensitive subject, and I would hope that a public log would not contain that information. First, there is little agreement on just what constitutes a sexual assault, with some people feeling it consists only of non consensual penetration, while others feeling it would encompass hugging, or even calling someone Honey. And second, an assault victim is often reluctant to be open about it; some societies even say a woman is unfit to be married if she is a victim. So I think such crimes should be exempted from our drive for transparency. And I think the sexual nature of the crime was only discovered perhaps days after the actual crime. We just don't know, and probably never will.

In any event, I think it is not clear that the mayor knew the magnitude of the crime immediately after it happened and it is hysterical to assume he did. I don't see a connection between what is reported to have happened in Cleveland, and the apparently single event that is reported to have happened in Lakewood, although I would hope that the Lakewood and Cleveland investigators would look into that.

I don't see that Lakewood has acted to cover this up. What would they gain by not being open about it? Would they conceal it until after the election to protect themselves, as Obama is deferring action on his master plan for immigration.

The city now calls and emails us when the weather is threatening, but that is useful information as I might want to run out and cut the grass before the storm. But I don't want a call or email every time there is a crime done, because there is nothing to do in that situation. I think anyone who alters their behaviour after hearing of a robbery or sexual assault has been living in a fool's paradise, as they should have been taking those precautions from the beginning of their sentient life.

[Amy Martin]

I am just speechless after Mr. Brown's replyl

[Scott Steinbrick]

The rape in Lakewood on Warren occured on August 30th (as shown below). I don't know why there is a descrepancy in what the log shows and what was reported. I have conducted an audit of the past 30 days and what appears in Lakewood's call logs does match (sans the date descrepancy) one for one for violent crimes.
There is no evidence that the call logs are in fact not complete sans this date in question.

Please accept my appologies for the first post as it took things off track. I would reccomend everyone take some time to navigate and propery setup https://www.crimereports.com/agency/lakewood
It is accurate and you can simply be notified (even daily) regarding minor to serious crimes.

Identifier:114005652Occurred On:30 Aug 2014 @ 4:48:00 AM Narrative RAPE-WEAPON 1101 Call#: 142420038 Beat: Beat 4 Units.: 1I208 Employees: 0000001066 ALLEN, TODD Units.: 1I228 Employees: 0000001077 HILFIKER, DANIEL Units.: 1P207 Employees: 0000009542 PIECHOWIAK, RYAN Units.: 1P211 Employees: 0000001127 LULIC, ISMIR Units.: 1P214 Employees: 0000001235 MCCARTHY, WILLIAM Units.: 1P215 Employees: 0000001023 CLARK, JUSTIN Units.: 1P224 Employees: 0000001256 GONZALEZ, WILLIAM Units.: 1P273 Employees: 0000001106 MULLEN, PATRICK Units.: 1S223 Employees: 0000001069 BROWN, DUANE Veh: 07 VOLK SIL FBQ6546 OH *** CAD Call Narrative *** female stated that she got robbed at gunpoint by a black male wearing white shirt/jeans/black baseball hat male was armed with a small silver handgun he took $200 male was approx 5'8-5'10 male ran about 5 houses from 1590 warren and ran west bound through the yard