Suspect in TPD officer’s death has history of domestic violence and drug charges

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - The man suspected of ramming a patrol car and killing a Tallahassee police officer Wednesday has served time in prison for domestic violence and cocaine sales, public records show.

Tyrone Cleveland is accused of shooting three members of his family at a home on Saplin Court early Wednesday morning, then crashing into a Tallahassee Police Department officer’s car about an hour later at the intersection of Capital Circle NW and Northwest Passage.

Leon County court records show Cleveland was charged with a violent domestic attack in November 2012 and later entered a plea to multiple felonies, including aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, domestic battery by strangulation, child abuse and more. WCTV has requested copies of those arrest reports.

Cleveland was also charged with resisting officers with violence, as members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force tried to arrest him in a motel room a few days later. Those arrest records say Cleveland was tased twice after reaching under the bed and kicking the two officers trying to handcuff him. Officers also described suspected cocaine in plain view in the motel room and razor blades swirling in the bottom of the toilet.

Leon County court records show Cleveland was sentenced to four years in state prison, and Florida Department of Corrections records show he was released in August 2016.

A prison mugshot of Tyrone Cleveland from 2012.(Florida Department of Corrections)

Leon County court records show Cleveland was also wanted in Georgia on cocaine charges and Florida DOC records show that Georgia’s Department of Corrections had issued a detainer for him upon his release.

A search of GDC’s online records indicates Cleveland has a history of drug arrests — including the sale of cocaine — in Grady County.

Those GDC records show he’s done three stints in Georgia prisons since 2005, the most recent soon after his release in Florida. GDC online records show Cleveland served time at Valdosta State Prison starting in August 2016 and was released the following spring in May 2017.

Cleveland was released from the hospital and booked into the Leon County Jail Wednesday afternoon.

He will make his first appearance before a judge at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Court records show he is facing three counts of homicide, one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Detailed arrest reports and affidavits have not yet been filed.