Detective Robert James Clark, II

Robert James Clark, II

Detective James Clark was shot and killed as he and his partner were attempting to question a suspected drug dealer.

Both officers were on their way to meet with state liquor agents for an undercover operation when they spotted what they suspected was a drug deal in a heavy narcotics area on Madison Avenue in Cleveland. The suspect they stopped to talk to fled into a building and was caught by the officers on the top of a staircase.

After the officers found drugs on the suspect, he pushed them both down the staircase and opened fire with a 9 mm handgun. Detective Clark was struck three times in the chest and once in the neck. He had taken his vest off approximately 15 minutes before the incident so that he would not be recognized during the undercover assignment.

A third officer who arrived returned fire and shot the suspect six times, killing him. The suspect had been released from custody earlier in the day because of a failed extradition, despite four felony warrants in Florida. Neither of the other two officers were injured.

Detective Clark had served with the Cleveland Division of Police for seven years and requested Badge #545 in memory of his great-grandfather, Patrolman George Shearer, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police officer who was killed in a gun battle on May 12, 1914. Officer Clark is survived by his wife and three young children.