The Observation Deck

The Lakewood Police Dept. is investigating a reported rape said to have occurred at 3:00 A.M. on Sunday, October 16.

The incident happened at the BP Station at the corner of Warren Road and Madison Avenue and continued across the street at the Fifth/Third Bank parking lot.

According to Police Chief Malley the investigation is continuing in an effort to make a final determination of what actually occurred.

The chief has described a suspect that they are looking for as a
• black male
• age 20-25 years
• 5’6â€Â￾ to 5’8â€Â￾
• 150 – 180 pounds

He was wearing a dark hoody and blue jeans at the time of the incident.

Observers can call the non-emergency Police number of 216.521.6773 if they have any information that might help.

- Stan Austin, City Hall Reporter

Within the last 3 weeks I have heard of 5 serious crimes inside Lakewood.
-Chain Link Addiction robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight.
-A man held hostage in his apartment at gunpoint for 30 minutes while being robbed on Wagar.
-Huntington Bank being robbed on Detroit.
-The supposed rape at 5/3 on Warren/Madison.
-A man being robbed at gunpoint near 117th and Lake ave. (This might be in Cleveland)
I was told all these incidents have been reported to the Lakewood Police.
As of this week I have not heard if any of these criminals have been caught. I do not want to "bug" the police as I am sure they are busy, but what to do to catch these folks and prevent similar crimes in the future.
Is this crime normal for Lakewood or is this some sort of "rash","spike" or increase?
Anyone have some info?

Heard that there was another rape last night near the same area as before. Hope the police catch this guy soon.

That is really scary. We live very close to there and until now I felt pretty safe. Is serious crime going up in Lakewood? It just seems in the past such crimes were unheard of.

For the suggestion box: Since so many of us carry cell phones, as good sense would dictate anyway, we all keep something to write on, in our cars/trucks. As a community, we can do as many private communities do, such as housing developments etc. In a utopian goal, what we could all do is keep a higher level of awareness. If, in our normal driving we see something that just doesn't look right, looks like someone is doing something you don't think is right, DO NOT write and drive (that's all anyone needs is an accident), but remember a color of car, van etc., location etc., and jot down a license plate, if it can be seen.

Get on the cell phone and pass it on to the police dept. A hundred or thousand pairs of eyes certainly couldn't hurt.

Mark Allan (Crnolatas)
"A society or group of people exist soley in it's ability to maintain an atmosphere of peace and civility. It's failure is directly relative to the degree of the lack of these conditions".

Mark


Another good tip is do not throw out cell phones. Give them to someone you love or care about. By law ALL cell phones can dial 911 even with no service provider/

My wife keeps an old phone in the glove box just for emergencies.


Danielle

Crime up or down is a hard one to tell. I listen to the scanner and ot would seem calls are up, but it would seem to be mostly nuisance calls. Music, cars parked, bars loud, etc.

Is under reporting common. You bet. When our last mayor was in office they found a bomb in the house down the street. Bomb squad came, but no media. the bomb was removed. I NEVER saw anything in the paper. I finally walked down and asked the person who lived about the "bomber." He told me it was a bomb from WWII that guy never realized was live!!!! But imagine how the media would of handled it. "Bomber IN LAKEWOOD"

I have no problem with the city keeping some things close to the vest. Like the murder on Brockley, the police department were pretty sure immediately it was a "domestic" crime. However this rap would seem to be an random crime of opportunity. The police immediately made it public knowledge that they were looking for someone, much like the bank robbery.

Another thing that should be pointed out. Times are tough and they will just get tougher. Lakewood, Bay Village, Rocky River, Hinckley, Atlanta, San Jose, Seattle wherever. Desperate times make people do desperate things. Not rape, but bank robberies, etc.



.

In the psychology of criminal acts, it is highlighted that neither poverty nor economy causes crimes per se. Violent crimes are committed by violent people, whether psychologically, in it's broadest sense, or induced by some stimuli such as drugs or drinking. Crimes in general are of "opportunity". Remove the opportunity, and a crime cannot exist. In it's simplest form, if cars didn't exist, then neither would auto theft. Unless a person does not have psychological control of himself, (psychologically incompetent) then to commit a crime is a matter of choice. That person makes a conscious decision to commit a crime. Intent, and opportunity.

Opportunity increases in cities, where there is close proximity of those with criminal intent, and those persons or situations that are most likely targets of opportunity.

Here in our city, we appear relatively affluent compared to the W.25 to W.65th area for example. More importantly we generally appear to have an air of unawareness. As those with criminal intent disperse among our city and other western suburbs, the perceived opportunity for criminal activity increases, as the opportunities becomes more apparent to them.

Society in general, especially value of life, has been eroding since the beginning of time.

There hasn't been an answer to this erosion. We can attempt to teach our children values, especially the value of life, but we're no longer isolated from the rest of the world. Their lack of value for life becomes our problem also.

What we can do as a community, in my opinion, is attempt a grass-roots effort, community wide, to be more aware, to put the past in the past, those days of unlocked cars, homes and walking in a "daze", and accept the changes in society.

We need to be more aware of what goes on around us. We need to do what is needed so our police department have what they need, both in personnel and equipment, to help hold back the tide. We need to communicate, with each other, and with our city officials. We need to cooperate more like a small town, where, for example, a stranger drives through and the whole town knows about it.

Of course, this example isn't possible in a city of our density, and size, but the concept of a communal effort is.


Mark Allan (Crnolatas)
"A society or group of people exist soley in it's ability to maintain an atmosphere of peace and civility. It's failure is directly relative to the degree of the lack of these conditions".

From what I've been hearing there was a rape that occurred on Westwood Ave and Franklin this past Friday.

The victim was a High School girl and the suspect was a black male. I don't know if the rapes on Warren and this one are related but the two spots are 5-6 streets away from each other. That's not too far.

Whether the rapes are related or not, parents do have to remind their children to be extra careful when walking home, especially with the sun setting earlier now.

The best thing we can do as a community in my point of view is to communicate. The more aware we the citizens are, the safer this city can be.

Channel 3 has picked up the story:

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=42680

David-

I think the link you want is http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=42693.

Thanks for letting us know more about this terrible story.

I hope that raising awareness of this problem will keep some women safer and I hope we all keep watch for things that seem wrong. We need to look after each other a little and get this person off the streets.

Do we have any update on this?

It takes awhile for the word to get around but obviously it does make the rounds. Just this morning while getting the PD off my porch at 5am, a neighbor woman was doing the same, and asked if I heard about the rape "that just happened at the BP Station on the corner of Warren and Madison".

It's like the kids game of telephone. Each time one person tells another, sometimes the time-frame might change, or the details might change, but bad news stays bad news.

Mark Allan (Crnolatas)
"A society or group of people exist soley in it's ability to maintain an atmosphere of peace and civility. It's failure is directly relative to the degree of the lack of these conditions".

It was also on Channel 3 news last night...

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/5486239/detail.html

"The Lakewood Police Department continues to investigate this suspect in regards to any other incidents within the City of Lakewood."