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Cleveland's Most Notorious Cop Was Arrested for Allegedly Drunkenly Fighting His Twin

After Michael Brelo was acquitted on all three charges in a manslaughter case a couple weeks ago, you'd think he might lie low for a while. You would be wrong.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

On Wednesday, police in Bay Village, Ohio, issued an arrest warrant for Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo, the cop who fired 49 bullets at an unarmed couple's Chevy Malibu three years ago as part of a 137-shot barrage from local police.

After Brelo was acquitted on all three charges in that case two weeks ago, you might think he would lie low for a while.

You would be wrong.

Brelo and his brother Mark are both being charged with assault for an alleged incident a few days after his acquittal, on May 27. Both men turned themselves into Bay Village police Wednesday, Northeast Ohio Media Group reports.

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Back in November 2012, Michael Brelo was one of 100 officers who chased after Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell when they mistook the couple's car backfiring for a gunshot. One witness at a subsequent manslaughter trial testified that Brelo jumped on top of the couple's stopped car and fired 15 times straight down into the windshield. But in the end, Judge John O'Donnell ruled that prosecutors failed to prove both that Brelo fired the decisive shots and that the shots hadn't been necessary.

Rather than celebrating in the days after his acquittal, Brelo—who remains on leave from the Cleveland PD—apparently took to brawling. Police showed up at 4:28 AM on May 27 in response to complaints that a man—who cops say was Mark Brelo—had been drunkenly knocking on her door. The police report adds that the brothers had been drinking at Michael's house earlier that night, and exchanged punches and other blows to the head, face, and body, according to a local ABC affiliate.

It's unclear whether this latest brush with the law will affect Officer Brelo's standing with his employer.

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