Bond set at $5M for man accused of killing Cleveland officer

CLEVELAND (WJW) – Bond was set at $5 million for the suspect in the murder of a Cleveland police officer on duty Thursday morning.

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Delawnte Hardy, 24, was arrested and booked into the Cuyahoga County jail on Thursday, charged with aggravated murder. His bond was set at $5 million during a court appearance Friday morning.

Cleveland police officer Jamieson Ritter, 27, was shot and killed in the early morning of July 4. The shooting happened just before 1 a.m. in the 1500 block of East 80th Street, near Wade Park.

Ritter was a four-year veteran of the police department, according to a news release.

The prosecutor said Hardy was wanted on a felonious assault charge. He is accused of stealing his grandmother’s gun then shooting her in the face on Friday, June 29, in Garfield Heights.

The 63-year-old woman’s husband found her in the bedroom lying in a pool of blood, unresponsive and barely breathing, according to a police report obtained by FOX 8 News. The man told police Hardy was at the home earlier in the day.

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The woman remains on life support at a Cleveland hospital and is reportedly brain dead, the prosecutor said.

Officers caught up with Hardy five days later. In an attempt to escape, he fired five shots, one of which struck Ritter, according to the prosecutor.

His murder case goes back before a judge on July 17.

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