CLEVELAND (AP) — A man charged in the fatal shooting of a Cleveland police officer has been found incompetent to stand trial.


What You Need To Know

  • A man charged in the fatal shooting of a Cleveland police officer has been found incompetent to stand trial

  • Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Ashley Kilbane issued the ruling Monday

  • She says 25-year-old De’Lawnte Hardy will be hospitalized indefinitely and could eventually stand trial if he improves

  • Authorities say Hardy killed Jamieson Ritter on July 4 as he and other Cleveland officers attempted to arrest him on a felonious assault warrant

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Ashley Kilbane issued the ruling Monday. 

De'Lawnte Hardy. (Spectrum News 1/Cierra Campbell)

She said De’Lawnte Hardy, 25, of Cleveland, will be hospitalized indefinitely and could eventually stand trial if he improves. Hardy remains jailed on $10 million bail.

Hardy killed Jamieson Ritter on July 4 as he and other Cleveland officers attempted to arrest him on a felonious assault warrant, authorities have said. The charge stemmed from a shooting days earlier that wounded Hardy's 63-year-old grandmother, who was shot in the head and later died from her injuries.

After a standoff with police at a Cleveland home, Hardy tried to flee on a bicycle and fired four shots at the officers, authorities have said. Ritter, a four-year veteran of the force, was struck by one shot and died a short time later at a hospital.