Cleveland man accused of shooting his neighbor

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A dispute between Cleveland 19 News neighbors from two years ago ended with a shooting last week.

42-year-old Mark Thomas Jr. is in the hospital and his neighbor is accused of pulling the trigger.

“I’m really terrified right now,” Thomas told 19 News from his hospital bed. “I almost lost my life in the middle of the street, in broad daylight.”

In October 2022, 19 News interviewed the West Park couple after they said they were viciously attacked by their neighbor, Steven Rogers’ three adult children, and another man.

Mark Thomas Jr. and his fiancée, Kelly Slobodan, said their neighbors have harassed them for the past five years.

“All this man ever did was try to take him from me,” Slobodian said. “They made our lives miserable.”

Their worst fears came true when Thomas was shot in the street Friday morning.

“I have been a nurse for decades and have worked in a trauma ICU for more than fourteen years. I’m sure you can imagine that every horrible thought was in my head: Am I going to lose him?” Slobodian said.

Home surveillance video shows Thomas leaving the house and his neighbor, as Steven Rogers’ car follows him.

Cleveland police said around 9 a.m. Friday they found the 42-year-old man in the back. The shooting happened near the intersection of W. 150th and Coe Avenue.

“I’m running by this time, okay, he opens the door, starts and gets out,” Thomas recalls. “Remember, he’s an older man. He gets out and starts shooting at me. I don’t have a gun. I am not a threat.”

Cleveland police said they found 71-year-old Steven Rogers at the scene with a gun. Rogers was arrested for assault and is currently in jail.

19 News interviewed Rogers about the attack in 2022.

Steven Rogers claimed it was the other way around and that the couple had been harassing his family for years.

“I’m trying to keep my kids out of this,” Rogers said.

The couple said they still don’t feel safe knowing Rogers is locked up.

“No, not at all,” Slobodian said. “Only on the night that Mark was in the hospital, the first night my phone went off, I saw someone throwing something at my house in front of my house.”

In the 2022 video of the assault, Steven Rogers, the couple’s neighbor and father of three of the attackers, is also seen watching the fight.

Court documents show the couple had a protective order against Steven Rogers at the time of the assault.

Cleveland police arrested the four attackers and they were all charged with serious crimes, including assault, but 19 investigators found that all charges against them had been dismissed.

19 reached out to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office to find out why, but we haven’t heard back yet

“The city dropped the ball like last time,” Slobodian said. “We were trying to get protective orders. Some of them denied them. When our last protective order against Steven Rogers expired, they wouldn’t renew it.”

Court documents show that after the protective order against Rogers expired, he filed a request to get his gun back.

“The magistrate and judge rejected our request not to allow him to get his gun back and gave it to him anyway,” Slobodian claimed.

Thomas was shot once in the back and the bullet passed through his chest. He has already undergone one operation.

“It’s a miracle,” Slobodian said. This isn’t: He’s not going to end our story.”

“I’m not going out like this,” Thomas added.

“Steven Rogers has no control over us,” Slobodian said. “He has to pay for what he did, and this family has to pay for what they did.”

Rogers will be arraigned in Cleveland Municipal Court on Tuesday morning.

Thomas is unsure when he will leave the hospital, but the couple agrees it is not safe for them to return to their West Park home.

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