A Cuyahoga County sheriff’s deputy concerned in separate shootings of two youngsters whereas assigned to a controversial downtown patrol unit was as soon as deemed unfit by a suburban police pressure, an investigation by The Marshall Undertaking – Cleveland and Information 5 Cleveland has discovered.
Throughout a nine-month stint with the Mentor Police Division, personnel information present Isen Vajusi failed his discipline coaching, lacked confidence, had “issue in nerve-racking conditions,” and “hesitates as a result of he’s afraid of creating a mistake.”
Supervisors discovered Vajusi’s efficiency so poor that he wanted to be terminated. He resigned Oct. 15, 2021, Mentor police information present.
After a yr on the East Cleveland police pressure, Vajusi joined the Sheriff’s Division in June 2023. Inside weeks, he was elevated to Sheriff Harold Pretel’s fledgling downtown security patrol to focus on crime hotspots.
Then got here the shootings involving Vajusi, together with an unrelated lethal pursuit.
Regardless of the gunfire and rising considerations over potential legal responsibility and prices, Cuyahoga County Council members backed down from threats of suspending the patrol.
Efforts to achieve Vajusi for remark have been unsuccessful. A county spokesperson declined to make him out there.
A Information 5 Cleveland and Marshall Undertaking – Cleveland investigation discovered a Cuyahoga County sheriff’s deputy who opened fireplace on teenage suspects twice in seven months was as soon as deemed unfit by a suburban police pressure.
The 2 shootings by Vajusi — in October 2024 and Could — are strikingly related. In every occasion, Vajusi opened fireplace inside seconds of exiting his cruiser. He will be heard repeatedly claiming the kids have been armed, however neither was.
Two police consultants who reviewed the bodycam movies and Vajusi’s personnel information stated there are quite a few pink flags necessitating scrutiny of the deputy. Statistics present most officers not often fireplace their weapons throughout their profession.
“This man will not be wired to be a cop,” stated Jeff Wenninger, the founder and CEO of Ohio-based Regulation Enforcement Consultants LLC. “He was so scrutinized for not being assertive and taking management of conditions. The pendulum simply swung means too far within the correction of that. He’s simply excessive.”
Wenninger retired as a lieutenant after over 30 years with the Los Angeles Police Division, supervising over 700 essential use-of-force investigations.
Pretel wouldn’t say if Sheriff’s Division officers reviewed Vajusi’s personnel information from Mentor or East Cleveland. His Cuyahoga County personnel file contained not one of the paperwork.
“Proper now, I don’t have all these particulars,” Pretel stated. “I’m not going to get into that dialogue proper now.”
The information shops requested the county for any background investigations performed on the unit’s deputies, however none has been supplied.
9 pages of Mentor Police Division information define Vajusi’s poor efficiency:
He graduated from John Carroll College and stated he pursued a police job after not being accepted to medical faculty. He then took police exams throughout Northeast Ohio and the Cleveland Division of Police employed him, however he resigned after one week, in December 2020.
Vajusi later graduated from the Cuyahoga Neighborhood Faculty police academy in June 2021. Whereas there, he was “horse-playing” and slammed one other cadet right into a coaching automobile, denting the door. Vajusi delayed reporting the incident and apologized, calling it “not a real testomony of my character.”
Wenninger, the police professional, disagrees, saying Vajusi’s delay depicts a personality flaw. The integrity subject ought to have introduced a swift termination, he stated.
“We name that mendacity and denying it,” he stated. “What was he considering through the time that this occurred? You need to have zero tolerance for something that might be indicative of being dishonest in any means.”
After graduating, Vajusi started discipline coaching in Mentor in July 2021. Issues developed instantly. He flunked the primary coaching part after the police division discovered that he created unsafe conditions for residents and fellow officers.
He didn’t carry out “at a suitable degree on a constant foundation, even after being supplied with remedial coaching.”
“Vajusi would have issue in nerve-racking conditions,” Sgt. Michael Kloski wrote in a memo. He “hesitates as a result of he’s afraid of creating a mistake.”
After 4 months, supervisors had seen sufficient of the rookie cop. A captain wrote: “Patrolman Vajusi will not be acting at a suitable degree. Failure to behave will not be an space the place further coaching will be supplied.”
East Cleveland police personnel information point out Vajusi’s coaching failures in a five-paragraph memo ready in early 2022.
Nonetheless, “I discovered nothing that might prohibit him from employment with the East Cleveland Police Division,” Detective Michael Cardilli wrote in a memo.
It’s unclear why Vajusi left East Cleveland for the Sheriff’s Division. However controversy adopted.
Final month, Cuyahoga deputies initiated a visitors cease. The car fled. After it crashed at East seventieth St. and Cedar Ave. in Cleveland, the driving force sprinted away with a suspected firearm, a county spokeswoman stated.
The 35 minutes of Vajusi’s bodycam video exhibits that inside seconds, he believed the Cleveland teen was armed and ordered the 19-year-old to “drop your gun.” Vajusi then fired 4 rounds.
After Vajusi fired, the teenager laid on the bottom together with his palms away from his physique. He was not injured. Nor was he armed.
“The place’s the fucking gun at?” Vajusi requested.
“No gun,” the teenager replied. “I’ve acquired no gun.”
“Why have been you reaching then?” Vajusi stated.
Vajusi informed investigators and dispatch that the teenager had a gun and known as for a Okay-9 unit to go looking a discipline for a weapon. The Okay-9 deputy informed Vajusi to not stroll by the sphere. Vajusi did anyway.
It took practically 12 minutes earlier than a sheriff’s sergeant informed a dispatcher to inform Cleveland police concerning the capturing.
Vajusi searched the sphere for the driving force’s suspected gun together with his firearm’s mild. He pointed his weapon towards residences and different males detained on a curb. A sergeant ordered Vajusi to sit down in his cruiser and pressed him concerning the gun.
“I assumed he had a gun,” Vajusi replied. “It was actually darkish.”
At instances, the physique cam audio turned off as Vajusi spoke. Different deputies reassured Vajusi they might discover the gun within the discipline.
After seeing Vajusi within the discipline once more, the sergeant snapped: “I want you to sit down within the automobile…That’s my steerage to you.”
Deputies discovered a gun within the backseat of the teenager’s automobile. Vajusi was positioned on administrative depart pending an investigation.
The October capturing unfolded as deputies say they have been in pursuit of a stolen Nissan carrying three folks, one presumably armed.
A 15-year-old was handled for a single gunshot wound and launched to county juvenile courtroom authorities.
Vajusi requested for and obtained stress depart from the division after the capturing.
A’aishah Rogers, the mom of the injured teen, known as it “alarming and disgusting” that Vajusi shot one other teenager so quickly after capturing her son, who didn’t have a gun.
“These are folks we entrust to police our streets,” she stated. “Are they simply hiring anyone?”
Kalfani Ture, an assistant professor who research police practices in Pennsylvania, known as Vajusi a legal responsibility to taxpayers and a “danger to the general public.” He urged the sheriff’s division to take away him from the sphere or ship him for extra coaching.
“This explicit officer’s instant go-to is deadly pressure inside cut up seconds of exiting his car,” Ture stated. “How do you even confirm the information should you come out of your patrol car already together with your finger on the set off?”
Vajusi’s police background deserves further scrutiny from sheriff’s leaders, Ture stated.
“The sample must be regarding to all,” Ture stated. “He shop-hopped from company to company. The place there’s a sample, there’s additionally smoke.”
