Ohio police say body count could rise in murder case

Published July 21, 2013 Associated Press

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio – The police chief of a Cleveland suburb told searchers Sunday that he believes there could be one or two more victims in addition to the three bodies found in the neighborhood earlier. Police Chief Ralph Spotts told volunteers checking vacant houses to be alert for smells of rotting. He declined to elaborate on other possible victims. 

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said authorities have a lot of reasons to suspect there are more, but he refused to say why.

A 35-year-old registered sex offender arrested after a police standoff Friday is a suspect in the deaths, Norton said. The suspect, from East Cleveland, has indicated he might have been influenced by Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell One woman said she was familiar with the suspect and had seen him walking through the neighborhood. She said she had told him to stop talking to her daughter and warned him after seeing him talk to her cousin.  

"It's very scary, especially when he used to be talking to my daughter,"...."But I told him he was too old to be talking to my daughter because she was only 19. When I found out how old he was, I said, `You need to move on, she's too young.' "......To Read More.......  

My Take - Most of my readers don't understand that this Cleveland suburb is almost entirely black. So when this mother told this man who apparently lived in the area to "move on" because it was acting in a way that disturbed her she wasn't race profiling, but she was profiling, and rightly fully so. 

Her experience in life told her that something was wrong and she acted accordingly. People have a right to know what strangers or even neighbors are doing in their neighborhood. It’s called self defense. What is unfortunate is that someone else didn’t profile this man and follow him.  

Maybe those women would still be alive.  People go places because they have a purpose in going.  And it isn't always to do good, and the police can't be everywhere and they don't often get there on time.  

That makes it the communities responsibility to prevent crimes.....but that was always the communities responsibility.......and we need to start remembering that and start putting the politicians, activists and police who have forgotten that in their place.  Because they have forgotten their place!