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Six hours before he fired a barrage of shots at a Pennsylvania College of Technology police officer on Vine Avenue in the city just after noon on Sept. 28, Tyree Cleveland shot and killed Heather Cohick in her West Fourth Street apartment while her 2-year-old son was there, city police alleged in an affidavit.
Responding to a shots-fired call at 884 W. Fourth St. about 6:23 a.m., officers came upon Cohick's son "walking outside the home in pajamas. The toddler had blood on his clothing which did not belong to him," police said.
Cleveland, 39, of Sinking Spring, a small borough west of Reading in Berks County, has been incarcerated on no bail since his arrest on Sept. 28 on attempted homicide and related offenses after allegedly firing multiple shots at Penn College Lt. David Pletz, who was responding to a disturbance call involving a firearm in the 1000 block of Vine Avenue. When Cleveland allegedly began firing at him, Pletz dove for cover to avoid being hit.
In under a minute, Cleveland was arrested at gunpoint by Pletz' boss, Penn College Police Chief Chris Miller, who also responded to the disturbance call, just north of the campus. Moments before his capture, Cleveland allegedly tossed two handguns in some bushes at 1005 W. Fourth St., police said, adding that the weapons were soon recovered by officers. Ballistics evidence collected at the Vine Avenue shooting scene confirmed that the bullets Cleveland allegedly fired at Pletz came from one of the guns, police said.
At the homicide scene on Fourth Street hours earlier, Cohick, 41, was found in her apartment "face up on the floor in a pool of blood. She had suffered two gunshot wounds," court records stated, one in "the head and another in the chin." She was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators have since learned that "bullet fragments removed from Cohick's body during an autopsy were discharged" from the second handgun, a Ruger 380, officers recovered from the bushes.
Also, "Cleveland's DNA was confirmed to be on the front of the Ruger," police said, and DNA collected "on Cohick's apartment door was also consistent with Cleveland's DNA," according to an affidavit.
On Sept. 25, three days before she was killed, Cohick reported to city police that her vehicle was stolen by a man she identified as "James" or "M," who investigators later determined to be Cleveland. After allegedly taking the woman's Chevrolet Cobalt, Cleveland threatened Cohick not to call police, court records stated.
Police said Cleveland also goes by the nickname "Mook." Court records state that Cleveland had been a suspect in Cohick's death since at least Oct. 19, when investigators were told by a source "to look closer" at the Ruger because the source had learned that Cleveland "had used it in a homicide."
The source told police that "if they looked into it, one of the guns recovered from Cleveland would match the homicide weapon used to kill Cohick," court documents stated.
The same source told police that the only reason Cleveland was in Williamsport in late September was because he was "on the run" from authorities in Reading, where law enforcement had filed an arrest warrant, according to the Reading Eagle, for his alleged involvement in a fatal shooting of a 53-year-old man on Sept. 11.
Regarding Cohick's death, Cleveland, a convicted drug dealer, was charged Thursday with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, convicted felon not to possess a firearm, recklessly endangering and related offenses.
In a second criminal complaint, city police allege that on the morning he stole Cohick's car, Cleveland allegedly robbed a clerk at gunpoint at the Family Dollar, 1221 W. Fourth Street, fleeing with cash. In addition to the homicide-related charges, Cleveland was also arraigned before District Judge Christian Frey on charges of robbery, theft, possession of an instrument of crime, recklessly endangering and related offenses.
"I'm guilty on all charges. I'll take a life sentence, no death penalty," Cleveland said during the proceedings.
He remains in the Lycoming County Prison on no bail. City police said Reading authorities have already arraigned him on homicide charges related to the murder in their city.