CLEVELAND — Almost two days later, the man who opened fire on nine people in Cleveland's Warehouse District is still on the loose. It happened at 2:30 in morning Sunday, just as the bars were letting out
"We have some very promising leads," Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond told 3News' Russ Mitchell Monday. "Hopefully, later today, we will have some more information."
According to Drummond, early information indicates this was not a targeted attack. Speaking with 3News, some business owners add there is a criminal element that hangs out in the downtown area, and they know police are shorthanded.
"This is not only in downtown and the Flats, but all over the city," Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association President Jeff Follmer said.
Follmer claims the department is losing officers by the dozen. Sources tell 3News that in the month of June alone, 21 officers left the force, with seven of them being outright resignations. Two hundred more are eligible to retire.
In Cleveland, officers are required to work mandatory overtime, with statistics indicating 90 a day are working either their normal day off or a mandatory shift. Despite this, there are less than 950 officers on the streets of the city.
Follmer says City Hall knows this is a problem.
"Officers are going to other suburbs that are paying more," he said. "Discipline still plays a factor in a lot of things. Officers want to know that we have City Hall to support us."
Mayor Justin Bibb says he understands the frustration, and on Monday teased potential measures to help rectify the problem.
"We are going to continue to invest in the police department," Bibb told Mitchell on Monday. "Last year, we negotiated the largest pay increase in modern history. We are in early conversations with union leadership about making sure we can have additional investments to attract and maintain officers to address the shortages in Cleveland."
More from Russ Mitchell's interview with Mayor Bibb and Chief Drummond:
On the night of the mass shooting, there were two officers scheduled to be at West 6th Street. While Drummond contends an increased presence would not have made a difference to this particular suspect, Follmer says he remembers a time when more officers were in the district and it did deter crime. He shared video with us from 2017.
"We go back to the '90s where you had a traffic unit of 20 to 25 people. You would shut the streets down at 1 or 1:30 so nobody can come in and only people can leave," he added.
The department reacted quickly to the shooting, and every car available was there. The problem, Follmer says, is that if CDP continues to cover chaos like that of this past weekend, who is watching the rest of the city?
"It's going to be a lawless Cleveland here pretty soon if we don't do things to correct it," Follmer added.
Still, while Drummond agrees the city needs to hire and retain more officers, he stands firm that more police would not have stopped the gunman in this case.