Judge Brendan Sheehan sentenced Brian Branch to 25 to 27 years after a guilty plea in the shootings at Cleveland officers.

The 25-to-27-year term is the sentence Judge Brendan Sheehan imposed, and WKYC says it was the floor the plea had already locked in. It is not a later parole hearing. Cleveland 19 says the dog in one cruiser was not hurt. Both stations still list a count of assaulting a police dog. A count in a plea is the charge he admitted. It is not, by itself, a finding that the dog was injured.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Brendan Sheehan on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, sentenced Brian Branch to 25 to 27 years in prison, Cleveland 19 and WKYC reported. WKYC reported he is 24 and that the range was the agreed minimum in the plea. Cleveland 19 reported he pleaded guilty Monday. WKYC's Wednesday story said a trial had been set to start Monday and that he pleaded guilty instead. WKYC's Monday afternoon story said he had agreed to plead and would be sentenced Wednesday. The counts both stations listed are five counts of attempted murder, one count of felonious assault, one count of discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, one count of failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, and one count of assaulting a police dog. WKYC reported that every count is a felony except the police-dog count. A guilty plea on those counts is the admission. The years are what the judge imposed Wednesday.

The chase started on the afternoon of May 23, and the two stations do not share one clock or one address line. Cleveland 19 said it began around 2:15 p.m. after officers were called to a 33-year-old man with gunshot wounds in the 5200 block of Fleet Avenue. WKYC's earlier account of the same day said the call was just after 2 p.m. at the Open Pantry at 5222 Fleet Avenue, which is in that block, and that the man had multiple gunshot wounds and was in stable condition. Cleveland 19, citing Chief Dorothy A. Todd, said the man was shot twice and that no motive has been released. Both stations said officers then connected a vehicle to the shooting. Cleveland 19 said that when officers approached it, Branch shot at them. WKYC said he fired several rounds at officers, and that one officer was hurt by shrapnel and by broken glass to the face.

The pursuit is the part both stations describe in the same order and then split on the damage. Cleveland 19, citing Chief Todd, said the Real Time Crime Center helped track the vehicle to Track Road and Martin Avenue, and that Branch shot again and struck a cruiser windshield several times. WKYC put that second location at Track and Martin avenues and said a second officer was hurt by what police believed was either a graze or shrapnel. Cleveland 19 said a police dog was in that cruiser and was not hurt, and that an officer returned fire and Branch was not struck. WKYC said a K-9 officer returned fire and the suspect was not struck. Cleveland 19 said the chase ended near the 15600 block of Chagrin Boulevard when Branch crashed into another vehicle and a building, then ran and was caught, and that Sgt. Wilfredo Diaz said a gun was in the car. WKYC said the chase ended in Shaker Heights near that block when he crashed, that he ran, and that a gun was recovered from the vehicle. Cleveland 19 said one cruiser hit a tree during the pursuit and a second cruiser crashed near East 75th Street and Kinsman Road. WKYC said another cruiser crashed near East 75th and Kinsman, that two officers in it went to the hospital, and that the other driver first declined an ambulance and later sought treatment. Both said five officers were hurt. Cleveland 19 said three of them were hurt in the crashes and were stable, that a 29-year-old officer had facial injuries from glass and shrapnel, that a 27-year-old officer was treated for elbow scrapes from shrapnel, and that all five were treated and released. WKYC's Monday story said Branch was taken to a hospital with a suspected broken leg and that a municipal-court bond was set at $200,000.

What he said in court, and what the judge said back, depends on which station's tape you use. Cleveland 19 quoted Branch: "I'm sorry and I apologize to everybody and their families down the road in a long term. So I hope you can forgive me. That's what I really want. I want forgiveness. And I'm sorry if I traumatized you in any such way. I pray you never go through this again." WKYC quoted him before the sentence was announced: "I'm truly sorry for everything that took place that day. I wasn't in the right state of mind. I would never commit or try to do anything harmful to anybody, as importantly as an officer at that. I truly have remorse." WKYC reported Sheehan interrupted and noted that Branch worked at a military shop where helmets are sold, and asked, "What were you thinking? You just drove around and you had these high-powered bullets." WKYC quoted Branch answering, "It was like a bad drug," and saying he was hearing voices and that it was traumatic. Cleveland 19 quoted Sheehan telling him, "Every shot, every shot you fired carried the risk of killing an innocent person," and, "Cleveland streets are not a battleground." WKYC carried a longer version of that line, including, "You were not entitled to gamble with other people's lives in order to avoid being stopped by the police officers or hunting police officers." Cleveland 19 said prosecutors told the court Branch was using bullets designed to pierce body armor. That is the prosecution's statement in that account. WKYC's published story uses Sheehan's "high-powered bullets" and does not use the armor-piercing phrase. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.