Police: 2 suspects arrested in 2 slayings in sports bar lot

PARMA (AP) — Police have announced the arrests of two suspects in the shooting death of a customer and a security guard in the parking lot of an Ohio sports bar over the weekend. Parma police said 29-year-old Sean Michael Acierno of Parma was walking through the parking lot of Rookies Sports Bar & Grill when he was shot and killed shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday. Police said 27-year-old Timoteo Cruz of Cleveland, an off-duty Cuyahoga County corrections officer with a concealed weapons permit who was working security for the bar, returned fire and hit the shooter, but the shooter then turned and gunned him down. Police said the shooter was hit and fell to the ground but managed to crawl inside a getaway vehicle, and the driver and shooter then fled. Lt. Daniel Ciryak credited what he called Cruz"s "heroic actions" with likely having saved additional lives, as other patrons were in the area or leaving the bar. Arrested before noon Saturday were two brothers aged 27 and 30 who will each face two counts of aggravated murder, police said. They are being held without bond and the AR-15 used has been recovered, police said. Cuyahoga County Sheriff Christopher Viland issued a statement expressing "great sadness" about Cruz's death and extending "our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to his family and those who were close to him." While declining comment on the circumstances of his death or the investigation, Viland said it appeared that Cruz, an employee since September 2017, "was killed while actively protecting the lives of innocent people." "There is no more honorable of a path than to have sacrificed in the service of others," he said. Rookies Sports Bar & Grill said on its Facebook page that it would be closed until further notice.