The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department released body camera footage of a deputy’s shooting of a teenager on Wednesday, nearly four months after the encounter, while the boy’s mother was not informed about its details.
The video release came just hours before The Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 Cleveland published its investigation into how the sheriff’s department does not release video from deputy shootings. This differs from Cleveland’s policy for footage of shootings by police officers, which are required to be released.
A new policy to release videos of deputy shootings sooner will likely follow the news outlets’ investigation.
“We are looking into our policies,” said Kelly Woodard, the county’s director of communications. “We are looking at refining them. We recognize that other jurisdictions turn around videos in three or seven days.”
Officials released the footage Wednesday around 2:30 p.m., after county law department attorneys finished reviewing and redacting 11 different videos, Woodard said.
The mothers of three teenagers who were chased by the sheriff’s deputies say they have been kept in the dark about the shooting. They did not learn which police agency shot the child until The Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 told them.
“They never really got into the details,” A’aishah Rogers, mother of the injured teen, told the news outlets. “They never told me.”
For months, the sheriff’s department had refused to release bodycam videos or detailed records of the shooting by its Downtown Safety Patrol deputies. As late as Wednesday morning, Woodard said the case was still under investigation.
Cleveland police are required by city law to release videos of officer shootings. But the sheriff’s Downtown Safety Patrol, despite operating on those same city streets, is not held to the same oversight standards.
This has led to less transparency and increased concerns over liability and litigation when deadly force is used.
“It's a distressing and disturbing lack of transparency,” Subodh Chandra said. Chandra is a civil rights attorney and former Cleveland law director for Cleveland, and a former federal prosecutor.
Woodard did not know if Cuyahoga County would adopt a new policy or ask the County Council to pass an ordinance.
“That is a question for the sheriff's department,” she said.
Some Cuyahoga County leaders have said they want to adopt a law similar to the ones Cleveland enacted in 2022 and Akron passed in 2021, which require video from body cameras to be made available within seven days of a use-of-force encounter.
Cuyahoga County is the only county in Ohio with an appointed sheriff. Sheriff Harold Pretel was appointed by and reports to County Executive Chris Ronayne. Ohio law gives sheriffs the power to police anywhere in their county.
Ronayne and Pretel have declined requests for comment.
County officials confirmed that the deputies involved in the October shooting, Kasey Loudermilk and Isen Vajusi, are members of the sheriff’s Downtown Safety Patrol.
The eight-deputy patrol unit has been a source of controversy since Pretel and Cleveland leaders unveiled plans in 2023 to target crime in the city’s entertainment districts.
The sheriff announced plans in November 2024 to expand the downtown unit countywide.
The October 2024 shooting unfolded as Cuyahoga County sheriff’s deputies say they were in pursuit of a stolen Nissan carrying three people, one possibly armed.
The chase ended in a crash near East 26th Street and Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland, prompting the three teenagers inside to run. Deputies opened fire, striking a 15-year-old boy in the leg, records show.
The teen was treated for a single gunshot wound and released to county juvenile court authorities. He and the two other teenaged boys face a number of delinquency charges.
The Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 learned the identities of the three teenagers from police dispatch logs and requested juvenile court records.
The news outlets are not identifying the teens because of their newsroom policies on generally not naming minors accused of crimes. The teens’ parents agreed to allow their own names to be published.
The teens all face numerous delinquency charges tied to the carjacking they’re accused of participating in. Some include obstructing official business, receiving stolen property, aggravated robbery, robbery and theft of a motor vehicle. They have entered pleas of “not true,” the equivalent of not guilty, to the charges.
Rogers said the bullet hit the side of her son’s upper thigh as he was running away. The bullet entered and exited his leg, she said. She questions the circumstances around the shooting.
Juvenile court proceedings in December and January shed little light on the shooting. Prosecutors had repeatedly told a magistrate that they had yet to receive footage from the deputies’ body cams and were waiting for results from gunshot residue tests.
The calls for more public accountability come as deputies have increased patrol activities downtown.
Critics want transparency in all police shootings, regardless of the agency involved.
Brenda Bickerstaff, a community activist and longtime police watchdog in Cleveland, said videos of police encounters should be released quickly.
“It is a safeguard for both parties,” said Bickerstaff, whose brother was killed by a Cleveland officer in 2002. “If you release it, it shows both sides. By not releasing it, it shields guilt.”
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Cleveland officers work under the microscope of the federal consent decree and multiple civilian oversight panels.
The consent decree agreed upon between the Cleveland Division of Police and the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015 created a blueprint for how to repair community relationships and overhaul how officers frequently used excessive force on residents.
Cleveland’s layers of oversight include federal monitors overseeing the consent decree and the Office of Professional Standards, which investigates noncriminal complaints of police misconduct from the public.
The Civilian Police Review Board oversees the Office of Professional Standards and can conduct hearings, subpoena evidence and recommend discipline or policy changes.
Also, the Community Police Commission is the final authority on police discipline, policies, training and procedures.
The body camera movement brought the promise of accountability and transparency. That effort has not been adopted by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, and while its deputies can patrol inside the city of Cleveland, they are not bound by the city’s policies.
The 2022 Cleveland law also applies to independent police agencies that operate and use deadly force inside the city, but not federal or state officers.
Some of those police agencies include the Regional Transit Authority, University Circle Police Department, Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority and other smaller departments operated by hospitals and universities.
The city enforces the seven-day requirement through memorandums of understanding — agreements that allow the departments to operate in the city.
The law has created a double standard on Cleveland streets when residents expect videos of deadly-force encounters to be released in seven days, but the sheriff’s department isn’t required to do so.
Cleveland residents do not care which uniform police wear when a deadly encounter occurs on city streets, Chandra said.
“Law enforcement is law enforcement, and they should all be subjected to … the same level of transparency and accountability.”
For decades, the sheriff’s department has not had a large patrol presence of the kind common in rural counties or other areas where a sheriff is the main law enforcement agency.
Several Cuyahoga County Council members have expressed liability fears if lawsuits are filed against deputies on the Downtown Safety Patrol.
Cuyahoga County Councilman Mike Gallagher, the chair of the county’s Public Safety Committee, said the 11-member council should consider policies similar to those of Cleveland and Akron.
“That seems to be a popular thing that I've noticed around the United States,” Gallagher said. “It doesn't seem to be unreasonable.”
The Akron law compelled the city to release body camera footage of the fatal shootings of Jayland Walker in 2022 and, most recently, 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker in November 2024. The city released footage within a week of both incidents.
In a recent Cuyahoga County Public Safety Committee meeting, Councilwoman Sunny Simon told Pretel he created “huge problems by continuing this” unit because the county will be liable if deadly encounters occur.
Gallagher, too, had pointed words for Pretel on expanding the downtown patrol across the county.
“I don’t want to see somebody on the ground that we’re going to have to pay for because somebody got shot, whether it’s our person or a citizen,” Gallagher told the sheriff. “Right now, as far as I see, if this downtown unit did something, you are personally on the hook with the executive.”
