nationally how quickly can things change? not just in cleveland but in ferguson or south carolina or baltimore, where you are? when you say how quickly can they change, i mean what do you mean by that? in terms of how quickly can thing change for the better? when you have justice department investigations, when you have suggestions of better police training, i mean my sense is it s not going happen overnight. you know no, it s not going to happen overnight. and you know the just department seems to be everywhere nowadays. seems like police departments across the country are running amok and not able to enforce the law in accordance with the dictates of the constitution. it s we didn t get here overnight, so it s not going to be resolved overnight. i think a strong just department can kind of right the ship and set best practices for this country. i think that the way this case resulted in brelo s cowboy
authorities say brelo stood on the hood of the car and fired 15 shots into the windshield. though, about a dozen officers fired a total of 137 rounds at the car, no one else was charged. the case started after the car driven by russell backfired. a noise officers mistakenly thought was caused by gunshots. because he caused severe physical harm to the victim to end an objectively reasonable perception, that he and the others present were threatened by russell and williams with eminent serious bodily harm. reporter: relatives of the victims had harsh words for the police and court system. help my baby cousin! i tell you right now. we have no justice! i know that those officers were upset. adrenaline was flowing. by the time they reached up, caught up to tim and melissa in that parking lot, they simply let them have it. reporter: the verdict comes on the heels of several high profile national cases involving
and that is not true. when the verdict came out, i was very upset. we had a chance to speak with the media and i appreciate you all having me on today. after all that has happened there in cleveland, if you had one chance to talk to officer brelo or give him a message, what would you say? i would hope officer brelo would know the lord personally, like my brother did. i hope if he had malice or intent to harm, that he would ask the lord to forgive him. we are christians and we love the lord, and it s what has gotten us through this horrible time. you know, we have depended on our faith in the lord and god has given us strength. five other officers, in fact, are still charged with
opinion, although it s well reasoned. what i ve learned about the law you can reach whatever conclusion you deem to be most appropriate so this is what the judge deemed to be most appropriate but we should understand that certainly a different judge could have been a different outcome and a jury could have been a different outcome. in any event moving forward from that to the federal investigation. the pattern and practice investigation and the conclusions of that investigation be that encompassed the cleveland police department and, of course, those findings are very disturbing in terms of them tasing people who had already been handcuffed and shooting bullets unnecessarily, you know, beating and abusing people who didn t need to be, that is separate and apart from the inquiry that will be focused on brelo. did brelo, himself, it is isolated to his conduct. the standard is very high. you have to establish in the event that they move forward in the prosecution were not there
yesterday you got to crying when your sister-in-law spoke about the kind of person your brother was. have you and your family even had time to digest any of this? yes, we re it s very difficult. we re trying to digest it. i was very upset by the verdict. i just felt that something should have been done. i never thought that he would be convicted of manslaughter, but i felt with this particular case all the evidence that had been presented, there was so much evidence to show that there was coercion, there was a cover-up and i just think that the judge really ignored a lot of that information. and he basically just focused on whether or not brelo s bullets shot and killed tim and malissa. there was things that were done that night, you know brelo was not a hero. but he was the judge made him out to be a hero when he said, you know he was in line with