Memorial Portrait Poster depicting Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell and the date of their murder (November 29, 2013) by 137 shots from Cleveland police
“Timothy and Malissa knew each other; they were good friends. Unlike the official story, it actually started over at 2100[Lakeside], a men’s shelter where the men and women homeless people hang out together a lot. So, I guess Timothy was with Malissa. He had his old car and he said let’s just go for a ride or something. At a certain point they took off from the shelter and the police came and told people outside the shelter that they better say who was in that car. So, they probably said who it was and then the police started to chase. And it went for miles and miles and it got to the point of 60 cars chasing him. It was like chasing slaves.
Malissa had had experience with the police. They took her in; they wanted to sexually abuse her in the jail. She wouldn’t have it. They hated her and she hated them. With Timothy I’m not sure, I think, you know, he was a guy that was friends with her. The pigs chased them into East Cleveland and then shot them with 137 bullets. It was what many people called a lynching. And one sign went up–“137 shots is why we call the police pigs.”
There were major demonstrations around the fact that officer Brelo, the guy that fired 49 of the 137 shots was not indicted by a grand jury. Eventually, he was let go from the police department, but all of the supervisors, who had been taken off duty were later brought back. Around the Brelo case a lawyer here said to me and it’s clear. The authorities knew that if they went after Brelo, who shot the 49 bullets, that they couldn’t prove he killed them because they were probably dead before he even shot. So that was the way to exonerate everyone and that’s exactly what happened.
When he was acquitted they were major demonstrations including the arrest of 71 demonstrators. Six of them have subsequently received $50,000 in compensation–pitiful.”–Bill Swain