According to CBS News, in the pre-dawn hours of April 5, a call came in to Cleveland 911.
“I swear I saw a dark male lying on the freeway,” said the man. “It scared the crap out of me … I just had to call.”
Two police officers were dispatched to the scene. Upon arrival, one radioed, “All it is, is a dead deer … You might wanna notify ODOT [Ohio Department of Transportation].” Then the officers went on break.
After the officers left, other motorists would identify the body and call authorities.
One said, “There’s a dead female laying here on the side of the road … I drove backward and I stopped and sure enough it looks like a black woman.”
Later, a caller responded to the dispatcher’s claim (as he/she was informed by the officers) that it was just a dead deer, stating, “Doesn’t look like a deer to me.”
The caller was correct.
The “deer” was later identified as the dead body of Angel Bradley Crockett, a mother of three who had been beaten and strangled.
Unfortunately, the incident exemplifies a series of failures made by the justice system in Cleveland to “protect and serve.”
This report comes months after officials failed to fully act on reports of rape that could’ve led to the capture and prosecution of Anthony Sowell, a convicted felon and sex offender who would go on to commit six murders and hide the bodies in his Cleveland home.
One of the women Sowell attempted to rape, Gladys Wade, reported the incident to authorities. Sowell was arrested, yet CBS reports that an internal document claimed there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute, and he was released.
Of the incident, County Judge Tim McGinty said, “There is something wrong with this picture … This would not have happened anywhere else.”
Cleveland has more reported rapes per capita than any major city in the nation: 633 in 2008. No one was charged in more than two-thirds of those cases.
