By William A. Weathers
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati police officers who fired beanbag rounds into a crowd in Over-the-Rhine in April 2001 in the aftermath of riots have been cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal police investigation.

"The officers' actions conformed to the policy and procedure that existed in April, 2001," the report reads. It recommended the officers be "exonerated" and the investigation be closed.

In January, the U.S. Justice Department announced its investigation had found no evidence to proceed with legal action against the officers.

Mayor Charlie Luken said Wednesday he supports the conclusions.

"They were cleared by the Justice Department, which did an extensive investigation," he said. "They were cleared by our own investigation. ... I've always said, police deserve the benefit of the doubt, and that these guys were in a tough spot."

Following past practice, the mayor said, the city would pay the officers' legal fees.

City Manager Valerie Lemmie said the report finds that the officers could not be held responsible for violating a policy that didn't exist at the time.

"The report recognizes that the standard in place at the time was for a single-incident situation," she said. "The experience after the arrest was for a crowd of people, and the procedures, quite frankly, didn't address that. It's hard to say people violated a rule when there wasn't a standard in place."

According to the report, five Cincinnati police officers and a state trooper - all SWAT-team members - responded to the intersection of West Liberty and Elm streets about 4:09 p.m. for a report of a disorderly crowd that was blocking the intersection and prohibiting traffic flow.

The crowd had gathered after the funeral of Timothy Thomas, whose shooting had sparked three days of rioting.

The officers reported using verbal commands and hand gestures to disperse the crowd, but none of the witnesses reported hearing or seeing those commands.

After the crowd failed to disperse and appeared to the officers to become "hostile" and move toward them, five of the six officers and one Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper fired a total of 20 beanbag rounds at the crowd.

Enquirer reporter Gregory Korte contributed.