Possible Murder-Suicide on Westlake Ave this Morning

[Lori Allen _]

This morning a little before 8:00, I was driving down Clifton and noticed all of the police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances on Westlake Ave. From what I have been told, a man shot his brother in the face and then pointed the gun at his own head. I stopped to observe for about half an hour, and noticed that they did not bring anybody out of the house to put into the ambulance. It appears like it may be a murder-suicide. It is going to be sad, sad, day for a family out there. I empathize with the police and firemen, as these have to be some of the most difficult calls to go to.

I have noticed that over the past week, we have had an increasing amount of incidents involving handguns. It is a little frightening that in the past two years, that there has been quite an increase of crime in Lakewood and we continue to have a Heroin problem that I feel our mayor is not handling well.

I would like to thank both our police and fire departments, as I think they are a great group of people. However, it saddens me to see the amount of assaults that have been committed against our officers. The majority of these assaults appear to be dismissed in Lakewood court, while only a couple of them have actually been sent to county court. Assault on an officer is a felony. I think the mayor should be consulting with the judge and asking why these are being dismissed. Maybe there is a reason for it, but I feel it is a bit odd.

If I were an officer that was assaulted, and then saw the perp back out on the street because their case dismissed, I would not be happy. Every shift that our officers (and firemen for that matter) start, they cannot be 100% sure that they will make it home at the end of the day. I feel that they deserve more respect.

If you are out and about and you see a policeman or firemen, please stop and thank them for their service. They deserve it.

[Stan Austin]

False alarm It was a hoax.

[Lori Allen _]

Well, that is very good to hear, as two people are still alive. How did you find out? I feel those responsible should be charged for making false alarms. We also seem to have quite a few of these lately. Do you know if they have been charged? Is this a nuisance property? I have done some public records requests for nuisance properties here, and the majority of them go un-declared. I thought we had a nuisance officer. Did he retire? Thanks for the info, Stan.