Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo is going on trial for voluntary manslaughter charges Monday in the deaths of two people at whom he fired dozens of shots during a high-speed chase. Brelo is the lone officer to be tried criminally, among the 13 who fired a total of 137 shots at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams during the deadly 2012 chase. Prosecutors said the victims were unarmed and that the threat to the officers' lives was over when Brelo jumped from a police cruiser onto the hood of a beat-up Chevy Malibu to fire 15 shots down into the windshield. But his defense lawyers argued that all 49 shots Brelo fired were justified, and that the threat was not over until their client reached into the car and removed the keys. Brelo could receive a maximum sentence of 25 years if convicted.
