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Suspect identified as Jalen Jackson (left) arrested after fatal crash of Amazon van (image from Cleveland Heights Police bodycam/WEWS screengrab), Dr. Curtis Birchall (as seen in his obituary and The Fountain Clinic website)
Six days after a 70-year-old Ohio doctor was tragically killed in a head-on collision, a 23-year-old suspected of carjacking an Amazon driver and trying to escape cops at 100 mph by driving the wrong way on I-90 was indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on 11 counts, including for murder and involuntary manslaughter.
The suspect, identified as Jalen Dewon Jackson, was arrested on the night of Dec. 6 by Cleveland Heights Police after he allegedly threatened to “blow” a 55-year-old Amazon van driver’s “f—ing brains out” with a firearm, drove off in the victim’s Amazon van towards I-90, and, while trying to escape police, drove the stolen vehicle at 100 mph the wrong way on the interstate until he crashed into Dr. Curtis “Curt” Birchall’s car, killing Birchall.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley said Tuesday that Birchall’s death is “truly tragic and shows Mr. Jackson’s complete disregard for human life.”
“One man just trying to do his job was carjacked, countless people were put in danger, and another man – who had dedicated his life to helping others – died as a direct result of the defendant’s actions,” O’Malley said.
Jackson is no stranger to the criminal justice system, the latest indictment and other recent indictments show.
One charged count in the Dec. 12 indictment was for having weapons while under disability. The documents said that Jackson in May 2018 was “adjudicated a delinquent child for the commission of an offense that, if committed by an adult, would have been a felony offense of violence.” The listed offenses were aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and felonious assault.
But Cuyahoga County court records reviewed by Law&Crime indicate that Jackson has at least two other currently open criminal cases.
One case stems from an April 2022 arrest and October 2023 indictment for obstructing official business and receiving stolen property, court records say.
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The other open case —a burglary, aggravated theft and vandalism matter — was indicted in July.
The defendant’s legal peril is much more significant now, as a grand jury has indicted him for murder (two counts) and involuntary manslaughter in Dr. Birchall’s death, plus aggravated robbery, felonious assault (three counts), vehicular assault, having weapons while under disability, discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises, and failure to comply with a police order.
The lattermost offense was for operating the stolen Amazon van “so as willfully to elude or flee a police officer after receiving a visible or audible signal from a police officer to bring his motor vehicle to a stop and the operation of the motor vehicle by the offender was a proximate cause of serious physical harm to persons or property,” the indictment said.
Bodycam video aired by local ABC affiliate WEWS showed that after the deadly crash, one Cleveland Heights cop was screaming at the suspect to “get out of the f—ing car” and “show me your f—ing hands now.”
The suspect, wearing a jacket and hoodie, was arrested on a hillside to the right of the I-90 shoulder.
One officer could be heard shouting, “You can’t escape Cleveland Heights” cops.
On the Fountain Clinic’s website, Dr. Birchall was described as a physician “Board Certified in Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine” and “licensed in the State of Ohio since 1977.”
“He has practiced Emergency Medicine for the past 45 years and is familiar with treating all ages of patients from newborns to those over 100 years of age,” the website said.
In particular, Birchall was trained in “Eyelid Rejuvenation procedures,” like “facial fillers,” at “the world-renowned Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA, Los Angeles, California,” and received “additional training from top Aesthetics and Plastic Surgeons from Beverly Hills,” the website added.
