Councilman Timothy Austin accused of arson murder attempt after he asks elderly couple for more home repair money and the ex-Iraq war vet was refused

The font and rear door to the couple's Orinoco Street home in East Cleveland were torched using a lawless military combat tactic to prevent them from escaping

CLEVELAND, OH – An 80-year-old East Cleveland couple narrowly-escaped being burned to death in their home at 14105 Orinoco Road after a murderous arsonist torched the front and rear doors of their residence on August 21st.    The tactic is similar to one lawless soldiers and terrorists disregarding rules of conflict use to massacre unarmed civilians or drive out “holed in” enemy combatants.

Two days after East Cleveland councilman and mayoral candidate Timothy Austin walked off a home repair job over a pay dispute the home owned by his elderly couple customers was torched. The arsonist did not intend for them to leave it because the murderous minded criminal torched both the front and rear doors to prevent their escape. Councilman Ernest Smith is sitting on the front steps after admitting he introduced the couple to Austin. The subcontractor who called the arson attempted murder is wearing the blue cap.

It was used by “unionists” in East Saint Louis, Illinois on July 6, 1917 to aid in the extermination of more than 1000 American Negro men, women and children.  Homes were torched and the fleeing families were shot, beaten, stabbed and burned to death.

The 80-year-old couple, Alphonso and Barbara Isom, were rescued by East Cleveland firefighters who extinguished the flames enough to enter their home and carry them out.  Witnesses say the arsonist torched both doors and somewhat casually remained to watch before fleeing on foot to avoid law enforcement authorities.

The rear of the Isom home was torched with the front door to prevent their escape while their home burned. This is a military and terrorist tactic.

Fingers pointed to ex-Iraq war veteran and East Cleveland councilman Timothy Ray Austin.after it was learned he had been involved in a dispute with them two days earlier.  The first term councilman who showed up out of nowhere claiming East Cleveland roots to seek elected office in 2017 wanted $1200 more than what he’d bid for a small home repair job and was refusing to finish the work.

The sub-contractor he’d hired to actually perform the work told Austin he had to honor the agreement and that the bid price was okay.  Austin walked off the job.  The greedy politician wasn’t having it.

Timothy Ray Austin is a member of East Cleveland city council, a candidate for mayor, a contractor and property owner. His vacant homes are not registered with the city’s building department pursuant to the Vacant Property Registration Act council enacted in 2009. All contractors are required to register with the city and pull required permits. The mayor has no individual authority to waive the pulling of permits. Only the council can waive a permit requirement. If Austin’s doing contractor work without permits council hasn’t waived then it’s a problem because he’s on the council. Personal Choice Property Investments LLC was registered with the Ohio Secretary of State in 2016. Austin campaigned for council the following year. He had allegedly just retired from the United States Air Force. The name Timothy Austin is also associated with a homicide victim killed in front of Whatley’s bar on Euclid Avenue in 2002.

EJBNEWS was alerted to the story the day after the fire.  Austin’s name, then, was circulating as a suspect because of his confrontation with the couple earlier.

During an August 23rd news conference at the home Austin arrived to observe.  Councilman Ernest Smith admitted that he introduced Austin to the Isom’s.  The politican police arrested for operating a strip joint and selling liquor without a license from a bar the state closed told reporter Scott Noll from WEWS TV5 he had nothing to do with the couple after the introduction.  Smith seemed to throw Austin under the bus when he told reporters the perpetrator and the person who “ordered” the execution-style arson needed to held accountable.

Austin’s sub-contractor was more direct.  He called the act “attempted murder” in front of witnesses and reporters.  The contractor said Austin claimed to be in church when he texted to let him know about the fire.  The sub-contractor said “Satan goes to church.”

“You know you did this,” he did told Austin.  The ex-military man denied it.

East Cleveland councilman Ernest Smith introduced his contractor colleague, Timothy Austin, to the 80-year-old couple whose home was torched on Orinoco Street. Jackie Goodrum is seeking to replace him on city council in Ward 3. He’s a city car stealing disgrace who needs to go.

Sources close to the family say they’re asking for outside law enforcement agencies and the Ohio Fire Marshall to investigate the arson.  They don’t trust East Cleveland officials since a member of council with armed forces combat training is who the accusations of attempted murder are being directed.  Members of the family were in disbelief when Austin arrived at the home.

Mayor Brandon King’s administration is known for covering up for its two uncertified police chiefs: one with two felony indictments he pleaded down to misdemeanors which prevents him from discharging a law enforcement officer’s duties.

Police never investigated Smith’s use of the city vehicle he has no legal authority to drive to transport underaged strippers to the closed Club Dew Drop.

Not a single public safety worker administered first aid to Vincent Belmonte when Larry McDonald shot him in the back of the head. They only checked his pulse as his breathing and heartbeat slowed to a standstill. His homicide is being covered up. There’s no evidence Larry McDonald had that Belmonte was engaged in or wanted for a crime when he engaged in a warrantless pursuit with no probable cause. No East Cleveland police officer is properly certified by OPOTA in the manner spelled out in the state’s training laws. Timothy Austin doesn’t care as long as laws are not enforced against him.

A gun arrest of Cleveland mayoral candidate and councilman Basheer Jones disappeared without his ever appearing before Judge William Dawson.

Council Vice President and mayoral candidate Juanita Gowdy’s aide and East Cleveland Sunrise co-publisher, Justyn Anderson, provided EJBNEWS with the photographs and on the scene report.  The family has been advised to seek a restraining order against Austin and other uncertified East Cleveland officials from entering their property or involving themselves in the investigation.

Federal, state and county law enforcement officials are being asked for help.

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Eric Jonathan Brewer

Cleveland's most influential journalist and East Cleveland's most successful mayor is an East Saint Louis, Illinois native whose father led the city's petition drive in 1969 to elect the first black mayor in 1971. Eric is an old-school investigative reporter whose 40-year body of editorial work has been demonstrably effective. No local journalist is feared or respected more.

Trained in newspaper publishing by the legendary Call & Post Publisher William Otis Walker in 1978 when it was the nation's 5th largest Black-owned publication, Eric has published and edited 13 local, regional and statewide publications across Ohio. Adding to his publishing and reporting resume is Eric's career in government. Eric served as the city's highest paid part-time Special Assistant to ex-Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White. He served as Chief of Staff to ex-East Cleveland Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor; and Chief of Communications to the late George James in his capacity as the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's first Black executive director. Eric was appointed to serve as a member of the state's Financial Planning & Supervision Commission to guide the East Cleveland school district out of fiscal emergency and $20 million deficit. Former U.S. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson told Eric in his D.C. office he was the only mayor in the nation simultaneously-managing a municipal block grant program. Eric wrote the city's $2.2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant application. A HUD Inspector General audit of his management of the block grant program resulted in "zero" audit findings.

As a newspaper publisher, Eric has used his insider's detailed knowledge of government and his publications to lead the FBI and state prosecutors to investigations that resulted in criminal prosecutions of well-known elected officials in Ohio; and have helped realign Cleveland's political landscape with the defeat of candidates and issues he's exposed. Eric's stories led to the indictments of the late Governor George Voinovich's brother, Paul Voinovich of the V Group, and four associates. He asked the FBI to investigate the mayor he'd served as chief of staff for public corruption; and testified in three federal trials for the prosecution. He forced former Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj to admit her investigations of police killings were fraudulent; and to issue notices to local police that her investigators would control police killing investigations. Eric's current work has resulted in Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo accepting the criminal complaint he guided an activist to file against 24 civil rights-violating police officers in the city he once led for operating without valid peace officer credentials. USA Today reporters picked up on Eric's police credentials reporting from his social media page and made it national.

Eric is the author of of his first book, "Fight Police License Plate Spying," which examines the FBI and local police misuse of the National Crime Information Center criminal records history database. An accomplished trumpet player and singer whose friendship with Duke Fakir of the Four Tops resulted in his singing the show's closing song, "Can't Help Myself": Curtis Sliwa of New York's Guardian Angels counts Eric among his founding chapter leaders from the early 1980's role as an Ohio organizer of over 300 volunteer crime fighters in Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, Ohio. For his work as a young man Eric was recognized by Cleveland's Urban League as it's 1983 Young Man of the Year.

Known in Cleveland for his encyclopedic knowledge of government and history, and intimately-connected with the region's players, every local major media outlet in Cleveland has picked up on one of Eric's stories since 1979. There is no mainstream newspaper, television or radio outlet in Cleveland that does not include an interview with Eric Jonathan Brewer in its archives over the past 40 years.

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