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Gun-violence survivor tells council police and prosecutor failed to act in stalking case that led to shooting
Summary
A Cleveland nurse who identifies herself as a gun-violence survivor described a stalking history and alleged the city prosecutor and police did not enforce protection orders before a neighbor shot her partner; she named the prosecutor and other officials as unresponsive.
Kelly Slobodian, who identified herself as a longtime surgical ICU nurse and a survivor of gun violence, told Cleveland City Council on May 8, 2025, that her partner, Mark Thomas, was shot in the back on Oct. 11, 2024, and that prior stalking complaints and court orders were not enforced.
Slobodian described a long-running conflict with a neighbor she named as Stephen M. Rogers, saying Thomas was shot at 9:29 a.m. on the date she gave, and that previous protection orders and civil-court proceedings had not prevented subsequent violence. She said the neighbor had been arrested in prior decades on other charges and that surveillance-camera stipulations in protection orders were not enforced.
Slobodian alleged the city prosecutor, Akila Jordan, and Law Director Mark Griffin had not responded to calls and emails and that the prosecutor had pursued what Slobodian described as retaliatory charges against her partner in prior proceedings; she said a jury later found him not guilty on one such charge. She asked why the neighbor had been returned to possession of a firearm on March 18, 2024, a date she said preceded the shooting.
Her remarks were delivered during public comment and contained allegations of prosecutorial and police inaction. The transcript records a council officer instructing staff to shut off her microphone when her time expired; no staff response, police explanation, or formal referral of the allegations to a department was recorded during the meeting.
