A veteran Cleveland cop was shot dead while working as part of the federal law-enforcement effort initiated by President Trump to crack down on violent crime in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd — and three people have now been busted in connection with the officer’s death, authorities said Friday.
Detective James Skernivitz, 53, was working a gang-unit assignment when he was gunned down at around 10 p.m. in the city’s Stockyard neighborhood, according to Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams.
Another man, 50-year-old Scott Dingess, was killed while riding in the officer’s car — which crashed after the attack, authorities said. He was not a police officer and has been described as a possible informant.
Two of the people arrested for the shooting were juveniles, and one was an adult, said Williams, who declined to release more details, including what led to the attack.
“We don’t know motive — it could have been random, it could have been targeted,” Williams said at a press conference Friday. “What led up to shooting we’re trying to piece together right now.”
Skernivitz was also part of Operation Legend, the law-enforcement crackdown initiated by Trump amid widespread protests and riots over Floyd’s death in Minnesota in May, according to news5cleveland.com.
Skernivitz, a father and husband who had 25 years with the Cleveland Division of Police, was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center but died of his injuries, authorities said.
“This one hurts,” said the police union’s president, Jeff Follmer, who described Skernivitz as “well-liked” and a “good
man.”
Williams declined to answer questions about what Dingess was doing in Skernivitz’s car, including inquiries about whether he was an informant.
At the press conference, Williams also spoke about a second officer who look his own life Thursday night — but it wasn’t clear if the fatal shooting and the suicide were related.
“[Skernivitz] was what we call a police man’s police man. He worked hard to take care of his fellow officers,” Williams said.
