FBI in Lakewood

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

I'm a believer that Lakewood is a safe city and that I shouldn't be worried for my own safety. My mom on the other hand locks the doors at 1pm on a sunny sunday because things have happened on our street with intrudors since we moved here four years ago.

that's the thing. If you're worried about people breaking and entering, don't leave the spare key in the mailbox, and the windows unlocked and the garage door or side door unlocked. you can save a ton just by locking everything up. And if someone does enter your home, simply become a legal gun owner.

also get a dog. dogs are probably the best form of protection. the bottom line is be prepared. Don't be the person that thinks "oh this won't happen to me" because you never know. If you're prepared and know what to do in a situation like a robbery where you have little to no control, being prepared and knowing what you're next move is will give you enough control to better the situation in your case.

the kids in cleveland are a perfect example. two teens go to rob a middle-aged man at gunpoint, who happens to be a legal gun owner because he feared for his safety in the neighborhood he was in. He sees the gun being pointed and he pulls his out and shoots the kid. the other one runs away.

there's more ways to protect yourself and your home. owning a gun is just one extreme.

[ryan costa]

I was eating chips at Chipotle's patio deck today. Some low life hip hoppers were congregating at the table adjacent to me. They began talking about the FBI shooting, a 10,000 dollar reward, and Snitching. I didn't hear whether they thought it was cool or not cool to "snitch". But they were lowlifes.

[Marty Hout]

Mark, I totally agree with you. My involvement with the LPD began in 1989 as an Auxiliary Police Officer. I know that back then as I'm sure it is today it has been understaffed. If you add the injuries, sick days and officers called back to duty with the military it leaves a serious problem. In my opinion with the ever changing demographics of this city along with the people coming in from other cities to commit crimes I can't see why this city should have AT LEAST enough officers . Let's face it, the reality is you cannot prevent adults from committing a crime, you can only deter it. If those thugs didn't shoot that FBI agent on Wyandotte it would have been someone else somewhere else. On the other hand look at this last year. A few standoffs ended without incident which in one case a whole neighborhood would've been leveled. Response time in Lakewood is amazing and they are obviously trying to combat any drug activity. These aren't examples of police officers not caring or not enforcing laws rather well trained officers doing an almost impossible job under less than favorable conditions. Although I only worked with Chief Malley a short time when he was the Detective Captain it's obvious that he is trying to change the image and functionality of the PD with newer weapons, vehicles and training. Which brings me back to Mark's point. We need to stand behind the PD if not next to them and let them know we support them and are willing to help to keep Lakewood safe. Not only does it take a whole village to raise a child...it takes a whole village to keep them safe.

[David Lay]

The agent's name and details of the incident have been released:

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/05 ... elf_t.html

[Grace O'Malley]

I was waiting for details to come out, not that these are all of them:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindeal ... xml&coll=2

Something smells fishy to me in all of this. I wondered why an FBI agent was on Wyandotte at 3 in the morning unless he was on a surveillance. Now we find out he's in a honking yellow Hummer and is driving a woman home, one who is not his wife. Oh, and he had a gun but they don't know where it is. And, he dropped off the friend at home before he went to the hospital!

Anytime someone is trying to cover up something they blame it on "two big black men." This kind of thing just winds people up and you'll find out later that it wasn't what happened at all. I would not be surprised to find out later that the story was fabricated.

[DougHuntingdon]

I was not there but a lot of people have thought it to be suspicious the entire time, and it remains that way.

[Rick Uldricks]

Anytime someone is trying to cover up something they blame it on "two big black men." This kind of thing just winds people up and you'll find out later that it wasn't what happened at all. I would not be surprised to find out later that the story was fabricated.

I hope this isn't the case -- I don't think Lakewood wants Al Sharpton visiting the city. If it does turn out to be a fabricated story, I can only imagine the backlash of media attention. However, a lot of things in this story simply don't make sense.

This incident has prompted out-of-town relatives to call me and ask if my wife and I live in a "bad area" (ghetto). Yesterday, at a Doctor's appt., while giving the nurse some information, when she asked for my address and I told her I lived on Wyandotte, she exclaimed, "you live where that FBI agent was shot! You're not going to stay on that street are you?!" This unfortunate event has caused a great deal of anxiety, fear, and embarrassment for Wyandotte residents.

Still no word on the recent drug bust with another shooting that allegedly occurred on Wyandotte either...

[Bryan Schwegler]

This incident has prompted out-of-town relatives to call me and ask if my wife and I live in a "bad area" (ghetto). Yesterday, at a Doctor's appt., while giving the nurse some information, when she asked for my address and I told her I lived on Wyandotte, she exclaimed, "you live where that FBI agent was shot! You're not going to stay on that street are you?!"

That's just so weird. I work on the east side and everytime someone finds out I live in Lakewood, they tell me how great they think Lakewood is or what a nice area Lakewood is. I've never had anyone say anything bad about Lakewood.

Weird how people can have such different experiences.

[Beajay Michaud]

Maybe we should have a Levy for the LKWD Police department instead of more money for the school levy.

I really hate when I call the police dept to report something suspicious and the dispatchers acted annoyed when we call.

There were some guys blowing (blowing their empties) and having a beer party on the tracks behind our home, they had a small fire going to keep themselves warm. (At 6 am in the morning, they had six or eight cases of beer, why?? we will never know). They didn't even live around us.

Another time the kids next to us were practicing fire breathing with some friends and started a small fire. Again the dispatch acted annoyed when I called.

I would love to take part in a crime watch program.

However I think the decline in Lakewood started with the telemarketing firm that moved in the INA building.

We located to the Cleveland area in 1995 from Florida. We looked at many homes in many cities and settled on Lakewood. We purchased our Lakewood home in 1996. We loved Lakewood, at the time people seemed very friendly. It had that old hometown feel.

My husband worked at Associates in Dermatology located in the INA building on Detroit. He would walk or ride his bike to work. A few years ago a telemarketing firm moved into the INA Building. The telemarketing firm hires many people that most businesses would never consider. The most of them have criminal backgrounds; a lot of them have committed sexual assaults. (These are the people you give your personal information to when you order something from a TV ad, think about it). Over the last few years several medical offices have been broken into. My husband had several people come in while they were open and try to steal things from their office. Patients would complain that they were afraid of the people smoking and standing in the front in the front of the building. They were having more patients schedule their appointments at their other locations just so they didn’t have to go to the Lakewood office. They were left with no choice but to relocate their office to a better area. More businesses have moved out of Lakewood in the last two years than in the last ten.

A lot of the telemarketing employees will eat their lunch in their cars and when they finish they will throw their trash on the ground instead of the trash can on the way back into the building. Now a lot of the telemarketing personnel have moved to Lakewood. Bringing a lot of the East-side and Cleveland crime with them. If you drive down Detroit from 117th it looks like the ghetto. They can put up all the new townhouses they want on Detroit, build all the new schools they want, if business, tax payers and good families keep moving out of Lakewood. Lakewood will become an even higher crime area with nice buildings.

[Dick Powis]

I feel like I totally missed out on the good ol' days of Lakewood. I discovered Lakewood when I was 13 and I lived in Canton. Lakewood was like Mecca to my friends and me, because Lakewood was always thought of as liberal, progressive, diverse, and it helps that Trent Reznor is a god. (I'm such a loser.)

I digress. As most of you know, I was mugged at 117th and Clifton (Southeast corner, which is Cleveland) last year, around this time. That was a total shock to me, because I'd always had high hopes for Lakewood and was naive enough to think that Lakewood bled into Cleveland, not the other way around. And I have always heard great stories about Lakewood, before and after moving here. I used to see myself living here for a long long time. However, due to recent events and violent crimes in Lakewood, that day-dream seems less and less likely.

Stop it with the good ol' days stories! =)

[Bryan Schwegler]

Maybe we should have a Levy for the LKWD Police department instead of more money for the school levy.

I really hate when I call the police dept to report something suspicious and the dispatchers acted annoyed when we call.

I would only support a police levy after a thorough analysis of how we're using our current resources and is it the most effective it can be? I don't want to throw good money after bad (I would ask the same of any group asking for a levy).

Build in efficiency and accountability and you'll get my vote on a police levy.

And why not throw some kind of residency incentive into the police levy. So for example, if you live in Lakewood you get an X% bonus every year. Make it worthwhile for them to be here. It might be illegal to require it, but it's not illegal to incent them.

EDIT: Just want to point out that I'm not saying there's waste, etc, they are probably doing a great job. I just want to make sure there's not ways to squeeze better performance out of what we have before we throw more money at it. Personally my experiences with the LPD have always been good.

[Frank Murtaugh]

I was waiting for details to come out, not that these are all of them:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindeal ... xml&coll=2

Something smells fishy to me in all of this. I wondered why an FBI agent was on Wyandotte at 3 in the morning unless he was on a surveillance. Now we find out he's in a honking yellow Hummer and is driving a woman home, one who is not his wife. Oh, and he had a gun but they don't know where it is. And, he dropped off the friend at home before he went to the hospital!

Anytime someone is trying to cover up something they blame it on "two big black men." This kind of thing just winds people up and you'll find out later that it wasn't what happened at all. I would not be surprised to find out later that the story was fabricated.

Sounds exactly like Al Sharpton speaking.

The victim, like any one of us, had an absolute right to be anywhere in Lakewood at anytime of day or night. He wisely drove a party attendee to her vehicle which happened to be parked on Wyandotte. He did what most gentlemen would do on a dark, rainy night in a urban environment where anything can and did happen. (Last I heard from Al Gore it is still legal to drive a H2 Hummer, even a yellow one)

The official published explanation indicates the agent "...(H)ad a gun in the SUV, but police aren't sure where it was." The weapon was not lost as is implied in this post.

There is no reference by the victim or police to "two big black men".

The published explanation provided by by the Chief seems clear and logical.

The agent acted courageously by escaping from what could have been a kidnapping situation or worse.

The only "fish smell" rises from the ludicrous (at best) post which twists and spins the known facts and strangely blames the victim.

Watch. When he is arrested, you will likely find that this low life thug with the baggy pants has committed similar offenses. Hopefully, he and his accomplice will be apprehended before they kill.

[Grace O'Malley]

Really?

Then why is the FBI offering a reward for two black males?

[Rick Uldricks]

The only "fish smell" rises from the ludicrous (at best) post which twists and spins the known facts and strangely blames the victim.

OK Frank, You're right. There never was a reference to any "Big Black Men". The one that actually has a description, is described as being 5'8", medium build -- not big, but yes, described as being black.



Perhaps you can explain this also, and keep in mind, I'm not blaming the victim here, this just strikes me as being quite odd.


From article in the PD:
http://www.cleveland.com/crime/plaindea ... xml&coll=2

Despite his wound, the 25-year FBI veteran was able to drive the friend home to Clarence Avenue and then drive himself to Lakewood Hospital, where he was treated, and released that night.

He dropped her off, THEN went to the hospital?!?! I don't know about you, but if one of my friends was shot while driving me home, we would go directly to the hospital and I would wait for them in the Emergency Room. But that's just me. I hope that's not too ludicrous.

[Jeff Endress]

Grace

I think that Frank would agree on the Two Black Males....I think he took exception to your additional "big" description..

Jeff