In April, Cleveland Police Officer Jamieson Ritter and his partner saved a man who had jumped into the Cuyahoga River. A month later, they saved a man who had been shot multiple times by an unknown assailant.
In June, the Cleveland Police Foundation honored their heroism by naming them Patrol Officers of the Month.
Ritter’s promising young career would be ended much too soon only weeks later, early on the morning of July 4. He and several other officers went to a house in the Hough neighborhood to serve an arrest warrant on a man suspected of stealing a gun from his grandmother and shooting her in the face.
When officers arrived, the suspect, De'Lawnte Hardy, attempted to flee by bike, then fired four shots before officers subdued him. One shot hit Ritter, who was rushed to University Hospitals, where he was pronounced dead. He was 27.
The grandmother, Beatrice Potter of Garfield Heights, died later that same day; she had been on life support since being shot on June 29. Hardy is facing aggravated murder charges in both deaths.
Officer Ritter grew up and went to school in suburban Rochester, New York. He was in the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Syracuse University and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army National Guard when he graduated in 2019. He joined the Cleveland Division of Police in November 2020 and was assigned to the city’s Third District.
In 2022, he was deployed to Syria with his Ohio Army National Guard unit, the 134th Field Artillery Regiment, and returned to work the next year with the Cleveland Police.
Police Chief Dorothy “Annie” Todd said Ritter grew up with a profound desire to serve his country and his community.
“His compassion for those in need and his relentless pursuit of justice were evident in every action he took,” she said. “Jamieson was not just an officer; he was a guardian of our community, a beacon of hope and a symbol of strength.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost called Ritter a “selfless hero” and noted the tragic irony of his dying on July 4: “The loss of an officer on a day when we celebrate the many freedoms of our country is a cruel reminder of the price paid by those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our communities safe.”
Officer Ritter is survived by his parents, three siblings and numerous members of his extended family.
He was the second Ohio peace officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty this year. Less than two months before Ritter’s death, in the neighboring suburb of Euclid, first-year Police Officer Jacob Derbin was ambushed on May 11 while responding to a domestic-violence call. The 24-year-old shooter, Deshawn Anthony Vaughn, was found dead the next day in Shaker Heights following a standoff with police.