Black Man Charged in Racial Shooting

A black man was charged with felonious assault Friday in the shooting of eight whites near the home of a black family that had complained of racial harassment in a virtually all-white neighborhood.

Michael Spraggins, 23, of suburban Parma, who had been visiting the family of Marlene Armstrong, was ordered to appear in Cleveland Municipal Court on the charge Monday, city prosecutor Patrick F. Roche said.

The Armstrongs, meanwhile, moved out of their rent-subsidized home on the city’s west side Friday to a public housing development on the largely black east side. Since the shootings Tuesday night, they had been living in a downtown hotel.

Police said the shootings apparently were the result of racial tension between white residents and the Armstrongs, who moved into the home in February under a Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority program intended to integrate the working-class neighborhood.

Spraggins, who was arrested shortly after the shootings, was released from jail on Friday after he posted a $5,000 security bond. The charge against him is a second-degree felony and carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.