Northeast Ohio artist speaks out after showdown with intruder at gunpoint

CLEVELAND (WJW) – A well-known Cleveland artist just spoke out to the FOX 8 I-Team showing how he and an intruder had each other at gunpoint.

It was a chilling stand-off after a wild police chase, and it has left Jerry Schmidt changed for good. He now plans to close his studio and gallery.

Schmidt found himself face-to-face with an armed intruder, standing gunpoint-to-gunpoint.

Saturday, a teen running from Euclid police ran into Schmidt’s art gallery in Cleveland’s Waterloo section.

“I had to pull my weapon,” Schmidt said.

He wondered if he should shoot, or would the gunman shoot?

“I just thank God I didn’t do what I could’ve done,” he said.

Police video shows Euclid officers got there just after Schmidt made a quick move and took the teen to the ground.

“I told him, ‘if you don’t believe in a God, you better believe now because I could’ve blown you away,'” Schmiidt told the I-Team.

Euclid police say four teens in a stolen truck first rammed a police car, then took off. Police video shows a violent collision with the patrol car.

For Schmidt, it’s just the latest encounter in his neighborhood with criminals. He wants to make it his last.

Schmidt has spent decades making a living as an artist. Visitors to Cleveland have even seen some of his work at the downtown Hilton hotel, but after this incident, nobody will be buying his art work in Cleveland anymore. This made him decide to close up his shop and move.

In fact, the I-Team happened to be there as he broke the news to Councilman Michael Polensek, who had stopped by to say thanks for standing up to fight crime.

“I’m leaving,” Schmidt told him. “I put my put my building on the market.”

“We’ve got to make it clear to the City officials downtown, you’ve got to provide police protection. I hope you reconsider. I hope you reconsider,” Polensek responded.

Schmidt loves art, but he hates looking over his shoulder.

“What I have to do now is, I have go. I have to leave,” he said.

So, the quiet artist starts to pack up, yet he hopes he helped take back the streets with one kid holding a gun.

“I had to scare that young man straight. I think I may have,” he said.

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