(CLEVELAND, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is committing to full and proper public transparency in officer-involved critical incidents with a new webpage that will house complete case files.
Released on the page today is the case file for the Cleveland shooting involving Arthur Keith and law enforcement officers from the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority.
“Transparency requires consistent actions applied over time,” Yost said. “For officer-involved shooting cases that my office is involved with, the public and media can anticipate that, once legally allowed, we will promptly release all records so that objective truth isn’t lost in the narrative.”
The investigation was conducted by the Cleveland Division of Police following the shooting of 19-year-old Keith. The case was presented by a special prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office to a Cuyahoga County grand jury on July 6, 2021. The grand jury issued a “no bill” in the case, declining to indict the law enforcement officers involved.
The case file includes, among other records, field reports, dispatch records, crime scene reports, laboratory documents, involved-officer interviews and an autopsy report. Personnel files of the involved officers have also been made public along with body-camera footage of the incident and investigation.
The attorney general’s webpage will house case files for officer-involved critical incidents only after a case is closed, as state law prohibits any earlier release in order to ensure a fair investigation and judicial process.
“This case file has been made available on our website so that everyone can review the file and see the facts of the investigation,” Yost said.
Anyone with new or additional information about the case is encouraged to call the Attorney General’s Office at 855-224-6446 or submit a tip online anonymously.
