The Observation Deck

From Police Report

On Saturday November 26, 2016 at 10:49 pm Lakewood Police received a call reporting a male had been shot in the arm in front of 1382 West Clifton.

Lakewood Police and Fire units were dispatched to the scene. A 16 year old Lakewood resident had sustained a gunshot wound to his left arm. He was transported to Metro Health Medical Center for treatment. The victim was treated and released.

A description of the suspect was obtained from the victim and a witness on the scene. During the follow-up investigation information was developed which led officers to the suspect. The suspect Denzel R. Johnson, 26 yrs old, of Kenilworth Ave in Lakewood was arrested at 2:00 am on Sunday November 27, 2016. Johnson was charged with Felonious Assault. He was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on November 28, 2016.



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Wow. That hits close to home.

Bridget Conant wrote:Wow. That hits close to home.

Interesting story. Good news, it would seem everyone (still investigating) was aware of the others existence before hand.

In other words, not random.

The heroin problem,has become massive and crippling. I was speaking with a person at a restaurant, who at the age of 31, had lost 18 of his classmates from Lorain High School to heroin.

As long as we are not talking, an Observer had their car stolen, while they were within 50' of it, in their driveway, by another juvenile Lakewoodite.

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I understand the fine line between over publicizing crime, which makes it look like we live in a bad area, and hiding this activity, which may put us at risk, like when the rapist was active and the mayor chose to keep it under wraps.

However, I seem to be hearing more and more reports about some concerning increases in crime.

Is West Clifton/Detroit turning into another "Upper Arthur?"

Has anyone publicly asked Mayor Potter, Director of Public Safety, for his policy for communicating crimes and crime statistics? Or ask for his written policy.

Blasphamy! There is no crime in Lakewood.

In all seriousness, whenever confronted about crime, which is very seldom, all we get is chest-thumping from Mayor/Public Safety Director Michael P. Summers, making excuses, and why it's not his fault.

Another shooting, plus 4 heroin OD's equals five more failures by Mayor/Public Safety Director Michael P. Summers.

Is anyone losing count of all of the failures by Summers yet?

I talked to one of my neighbors who is selling her house yesterday. She is leaving because of the poor school system and crime. She is even an employee at the new "ER" and she sees the difference.

I can hardly wait until crime starts hitting Wilbert, Edgewater, Parkside, and Maple Cliff. I can't wait to watch the mayor's friends squirm and panic. I can hardly wait until the cops and firemen are on the mayor's street every night and his street is full of drug dealers, trash, and Heroin. Mark my words, it will go the way of East Cleveland, where once very wealthy neighborhoods deteriorate. What will he do????? Waahhhh! Yes Mr. Summers, it will hit your neighborhood eventually until you choose to stop being the rich white man's mayor and pay attention to everybody.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:
an Observer had their car stolen, while they were within 50' of it, in their driveway, by another juvenile Lakewoodite.

Lakewood should ban juveniles. Bans seem to be the "solution" for most of the municipality's ills.

Lori Allen _ wrote: I can hardly wait until crime starts hitting Wilbert, Edgewater, Parkside, and Maple Cliff.

That won't happen if Lakewood gets the high-end shopping district some people crave.

Just like the rapist who was running around Lakewood a few years back and none of us ever knew because it was all being kept under wraps.

But, at least we have Campbell's Popcorn Shop, according to the Mayor when I brought this to his attention . . .

Just what we need. Junk food, Sugar, FAT, Beer, SALT - and no hospital to fix the heart attacks caused by bad eating decisions.

Amy Martin wrote:Just like the rapist who was running around Lakewood a few years back and none of us ever knew because it was all being kept under wraps.

But, at least we have Campbell's Popcorn Shop, according to the Mayor when I brought this to his attention . . .

Exhibit A for the mayor's craven disregard for most of the people in Lakewood.

Peter Grossetti wrote:

Jim O'Bryan wrote:...an Observer had their car stolen, while they were within 50' of it, in their driveway, by another juvenile Lakewoodite.

Lakewood should ban juveniles. Bans seem to be the "solution" for most of the municipality's ills.

Maybe said juvenile was stealing a car to travel to another city to play basketball.

Kate McCarthy wrote:

Amy Martin wrote:Just like the rapist who was running around Lakewood a few years back and none of us ever knew because it was all being kept under wraps.
But, at least we have Campbell's Popcorn Shop, according to the Mayor when I brought this to his attention . . .

Exhibit A for the mayor's craven disregard for most of the people in Lakewood.

...that was really Mayor Potter's response? That's messed up. Just wow!

I was wrong at the start of this post. I have been given corrected information.

We have had 7 overdoses since Thanksgiving, two deaths.



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Jim O'Bryan wrote:I was wrong at the start of this post. I have been given corrected information.

We have had 7 overdoses since Thanksgiving, two deaths.

Oh Dear God that is horrible. About a month ago a young man who had overdosed on heroin crashed into cars parked on Clifton..east side of town- in front of my home. EMS eventually got him back on his feet and he stumbled into the ambulance. This one was obvious. There were 6-8 police cars, EMS, fire truck for a few hours in the dark. But I certainly had not heard until now about 7 OD's with 2 deaths in a span of 4-5 days?

Where are you getting accurate figures for this epidemic? How can someone like me know what is really going on?

I had heard the City officials were hiding our crime rates and drug problem and if that is true, they should all be run out of town. We need to address this issue and quite frankly, I cannot fathom why we would close our full service hospital with these problems so prevalent.

Thank you for the information.