Man dies from electrocution while stealing copper at former Cleveland Goodwill building
CLEVELAND, Ohio Jan 30 2018 –– A 47-year-old man died of apparent electrocution after he tried to cut live power wires at the abandoned Goodwill building in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, according to police.
Britt Williams of Cleveland died inside the building on East 55th Street and Central Avenue, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner.
The medical examiner has not yet determined an official cause of death but police reports say it appeared he died of electrocution.
An unidentified person about 11 a.m. flagged down a Cleveland EMS supervisor driving on Woodland Avenue near East 71st Street, according to a police report.
The person told the EMS supervisor that they found the dead body after going into the building to look for scrap, police reports say.
The man told the supervisor that he did not know the man they found inside the building, but that it appeared that he died from electrocution, according to police reports. The man who discovered the body left before police arrived.
Officers noted in police reports that they found the man dead inside a room that had a “high voltage” sign on the door, according to police reports.
The basement had flooded with some two inches of water because of broken water pipes that were still spraying water all over the room, according to police reports.
Police called the water department and Ohio Edison to shut off the water and power to the boarded-up building, police reports say. The power was shut off for several hours for the building and some surrounding businesses, police reports say.
A medical examiner investigator retrieved Williams’ body and took it to the county morgue for an autopsy.
The building use to house a Goodwill thrift store, which moved years ago to Euclid Avenue and East 50th Street.
Williams has been convicted several times for breaking into buildings in order to steal items, including scrap metal, according to court records.
He was convicted in August after a security guard at the Cleveland Track building on Central Avenue spotted him and another man climbing over a fence to the business’ property. The security guard handcuffed both men, called police and reported finding a bag with Williams that contained a flash light, bolt cutters, screw drivers and a saw, according to a police report.
He was sentenced to one year on probation in that case.
In 2008, he was arrested after breaking into AJ Automotive Group on Central Avenue and East 68th Street. A security guard detained him for police after he tripped an alarm. Police found he damaged both inside and outside the business, according to court records. He was sentenced to six months in prison.
Williams in 2007 was convicted after trying to sell scrap meal to Advance Iron & Metal that were stolen from Wagner Rustproofing Company, according to court records. An employee at the scrap yard reported Williams after recognizing them as stolen.
In 2005, he broke into Central Middle School and ransacked several offices looking for things to steal, court records say. Two janitors caught him inside the building and called police.
Williams also had copper-theft related convictions in 2004, when he broke into a Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority garage and stole copper, and in 2002, when he broke into a business and admitted to police that he was there to steal scrap metal, according to court records.
He was also convicted twice of robbery. In 2011, he chased a woman with a wooden plank with nails in it in order to rob her, court records say. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in that case. Williams in 1989 was sentenced to serve between five and 25 years in prison on an aggravated robbery conviction.
cleveland.com
