CLEVELAND — On Monday evening, the city of Cleveland announced that it has fired police officer John Petkac.
The 30-year-old Petkac was terminated from employment following an internal investigation which began after it was discovered that he used excessive force during the course of arrests on multiple occasions.
The internal investigation was conducted by the Cleveland Division of Police, Internal Affairs Unit. Findings of the investigation were forward to Chief Calvin Williams for review and then submitted to Public Safety Director Karrie Howard for final discipline. Howard determined that Petkac failed to employ proper tactics, used excessive, unnecessary and objectively unreasonable force, was untruthful in reports, failed to employ de-escalation tactics, failed to utilize an intermediate weapon, failed to accurately report the use of force and deployed his conducted electrical weapon (CEW/Taser) against a male, who at the time was passively resisting.
Petkac was hired in March of 2014. He was most recently assigned to Basic Patrol in the Third District.
You can read the termination letter and list of charges against Petkac below:
In addition, Howard announced that Officer John Hawk will remain suspended without pay after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court last week.
The 41-year-old Hawk was originally suspended without pay in March of 2020 after being indicted on charges of Felonious Assault and Abduction following the Cleveland Division of Police Internal Affairs Unit's investigation of a complaint filed against him.
Now that Hawk’s criminal case has been resolved, the city says its standard operating procedure dictates that the administrative, pre-disciplinary hearing shall reconvene. A decision on what discipline, if any, Hawk will receive will be determined after the pre-disciplinary hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.
John Hawk was hired by the Division of Police in November of 2018. He was most recently assigned to the Fourth District on Basic Patrol.
Editor's Note: The below story aired on June 15, 2020
