Murder on Edgewater

[Lori Allen _]

Sad news for our community. Yesterday around 6:15 P.M., Lakewood experienced its fourth murder of the year. It happened at the Park Shore Apartments on Edgewater (between Cove and West 117th). Neighbors reported hearing a female screaming in the apartment. When officers arrived, they found a female on the floor that had passed away. From what I can tell, this is currently being investigated as a homicide.

I hope that the families involved can find peace from their sorrows. Please pray for the families involved.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Sad news for our community. Yesterday around 6:15 P.M., Lakewood experienced its fourth murder of the year. It happened at the Park Shore Apartments on Edgewater (between Cove and West 117th). Neighbors reported hearing a female screaming in the apartment. When officers arrived, they found a female on the floor that had passed away. From what I can tell, this is currently being investigated as a homicide.

I hope that the families involved can find peace from their sorrows. Please pray for the families involved.

Lori

The call went out at 6:27pm, a neighbor heard a woman screaming at her boyfriend to let
her out of the apartment" Many times and screaming. At 6:30pm one of the neighbors
entered the apartment at 11851 Edgewater Apt. 101 and found the 53-year-old woman
lying on the floor unresponsive but breathing. When Fire got there at 6:32 the woman was
still having troubled shallow breaths and was transported to the Cleveland Clinic, where
she passed away this morning.

Police are investigating...

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[Jim O'Bryan]

11851 Edgewater Drive.

NEWS RELEASE

Report# 15-004875

August 10, 2015

On Sunday August 9, 2015 at 6:31 pm the Lakewood Police Department received a call reporting a female screaming at 11855 Edgewater Apt # 101. While officers were enroute to the scene the caller reported a female was down on the floor in the apartment.

Lakewood Police and Fire Units respond. Upon entering the apartment officers found a female on the couch in the living room. The female was unconscious with shallow breathing. She was transported to Lakewood Hospital and then transferred to The Cleveland Clinic. The female was pronounced dead at 4:20am on August 10, 2015.

In the apartment with the female was a male. He was placed under arrest for Felonious Assault. The male is 28 years old and was staying in the apartment.

The victim is identified as Kimberly S. Harris, 53 years old.

This case is being investigated as a homicide, pending a ruling by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner.

Charges will be filed once the facts are presented to the Prosecutor.


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[Lori Allen _]

Thanks for the info, Jim. This is indeed a very sad incident.

[tom monahan]

Why was this victim taken from Lakewood and flown to the Clinic? Why was she not flown to Metro since that is the only Level One trauma hospital in the County? Was Metro on diversion because it was too busy?

[Bridget Conant]

This site keeps track of all restrictions and diversions:

http://cecoms.cuyahogacounty.us/

There are reports that you can request that tell you if they are taking ER patients. The emergency ambulances use this system.

From 8/7 to today, Metro has been on Treat and Release only for over 8 hours.

There is a wealth of information there.

[Lori Allen _]

Just an update for anyone interested:

I ran into someone today that lives in the building where this happened. They told me that this apartment unit had many problems and that the police were there frequently. I was told that the problems revolved around the woman that lived in the apartment (the deceased) and a man who was believed to be her drug supplier. This person told me that this person was indeed screaming for help and trying to get out of her apartment. I was also told that the person appeared deceased when they were being taken to the ambulance. Some neighbors in the building believe that prior to the police arriving, that this man may have given the victim a lethal injection of an unknown drug in order to kill her. This person then told me that the man involved was never charged and was released. After speaking with the resident of the building, I am very concerned that maybe we are not investigating or reporting the homicides that happen in our city. I cannot believe that in such a short period of time, that a thorough investigation was done. I believe that most medical examiners are able to determine most of the time whether or not the injection was self-inflicted or done by someone else. Does anyone else have any info on this? Just wondering.

Regardless, I hope that this poor soul can rest in peace and that they may one day get justice.

FWIW.

[Bill Call]

Four murders in a year use to be news. Why, it use to be a campaign issue.

Everything is not all right and saying so doesn't make it worse and pretending everything is fine doesn't make it better.

Lakewood is in a vice grip between the taxpayer subsidized downtown and taxpayer subsidized Crocker Park/Avon development. We are in a region of declining population and declining economic relevance. Our regional "leaders" actively encourage the outward migration of people and economic activity even though all of that "activity" just pays people to move from one side of town to the other.

We need leadership that is willing to challenge those "leaders" and their policies.

One of the main obstacles to getting that leadership is the shear size of the bureaucracy aligned against us.

[Lori Allen _]

Bill,
I agree with you. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but a couple of months ago, a lot of our police calls started getting assigned report numbers. The reports appear to be labeled Departmental Information. By doing this, I feel that they can then say that it is under investigation and then deny public access to the actual crime.Just like several rapes that happened after the Madison Avenue guy was caught and Summers did not feel it necessary to warn the public. One victim I believe was a two year old boy that was sexually molested. I do not expect Lakewood to be crime free, however, hiding crimes is not a good way of dealing with it.

This is by no means an attack on our police officers. They do a great job. I feel that the blame goes to Summers because is is also the Safety Director here in Lakewood. I feel it is obvious that he cannot do either job efficiently.

[Lori Allen _]

By the way, I forgot to mention that I have been told that Summers/ Safety Director makes around $200,000 a year and council voted him a $20,000 raise. Is it worth it?

[Jennifer Pae]

The Mayor's current salary is $90,000.

[Bridget Conant]

It increases in 2016 to $100,000.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/northeast_ohio_mayor_salaries.html

[Stan Austin]

It has been the custom in Lakewood going back to the Celeste administration (1950s) that the Mayor also assume the duties of Safety Director thereby justifying a "full time" salary. Other cities such as Fairview Park and Parma have a separate Safety Director.
In Lakewood, the historical explanation has always been that in order to attract interested individuals, the job had to pay what could be considered a full time salary.
The fact that $100,000 does not reflect the duties and responsibilities of a comparable private industry pay scale might be left for a different thread.

Stan Austin

[Jim O'Bryan]

The Mayor's current salary is $90,000.

I personally still think the Mayor and Council are underpaid.

A City Manager would start at $150,000 a year, so $125,000 for a semi pro would not seem wrong.

At the same time the discrepancy between what Lakewood Council people make and Cleveland is
staggering. Perhaps it is a time we go to a full time council? Drop to 5, all at-large.

I just wish, there was more transparency. (Jenn I do not expect you to answer this)


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[Peter Grossetti]

The Mayor's current salary is $90,000.

Benefits package (health, dental, expense account, etc.) not included in that $90,000.


Jim - agree totally with 5 full-time, at-large seats (or for fun, redraw the ward boundries going east-west rather than north-south.)