A Cleveland Police officer was cleared by a grand jury earlier this week after it determined that he acted lawfully in self-defense in the shooting death of an alleged murderer last year.
“The grand jury ruled that the officer acted properly based on its review of a thorough, independent investigation,” Attorney General Dave Yost (R) said in a press release. “The goal is always to find the truth.”
The case was referred to a Cuyahoga County grand jury by a special prosecutor from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office on February 24, and it returned with a swift decision to clear the officer.
Cleveland Division of Police officer Daniel Piper shot and killed 25-year-old Innes Lee Jr. on April 15, 2021. At the time of his death, Innes has a warrant for his arrest in the alleged shooting of a woman.
Yost’s office released investigative documents from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Crime Scene Unit, both of which were dispatched to investigate the shooting.
Those documents were released as part of an effort for transparency in police-involved shootings in Ohio.
“As Officer Piper reached the backyard, he saw Lee attempting to climb the wooden fence located in the back of the property. Officer Piper ordered Lee to get down from the fence,” the investigation documents say. “As Lee got down off the fence, he placed his right hand in his pocket and attempted to pull something out. Officer Piper stated at this point, Lee was having trouble removing the object from his pocket. Officer Piper ordered Lee to stop reaching in his pockets, but Lee refused to comply.”
That is when Piper shot and killed Lee.
It turned out that Lee was reaching for a handgun, which was recovered and secured by Piper at the scene, while Piper and other officers administered first aid to Lee.
All of the events that transpired were caught on Piper’s body camera footage, which matched the chain of events that he described.
Just a day after the shooting, that footage was also released to the public as part of Yost’s transparency efforts, so the public could corroborate the officer’s story for itself.
“Trust comes from consistent actions taken over time,” Yost said. “Once again, we will publish the full investigation on our searchable website for critical incident investigations.”
At this time, there is no update on when or if Piper will return to the force.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Cleveland police car” by Raymond Wambsgans CC BY-SA 2.0.
