At 11:15 p.m. on Jan. 10, a man called police to report that his credit card was stolen from his vehicle in a parking lot on Boulevard Avenue in Scranton. At 11:46 p.m., the stolen card was used to make a purchase at Convenient Food Mart at 2500 Boulevard Ave.
That was the start of a night of crime in Scranton, according to police, that led to two arrests and two people wounded. Arrest papers detail how the suspects' digital footprint and surveillance footage helped officers track them down.
Around 11:50 p.m., a resident called to say she heard gunshots behind her home on Harrison Ave. in Scranton's Hill Section.
Minutes later, at 11:58 p.m., another caller said shots were fired into her home on Prospect Ave. in South Side.
Police obtained surveillance video from Convenient Food Mart and determined it was Jeremiah Cleveland, of Mayfield, and Aiden Deininger, of Old Forge, who used the stolen credit card.
During this time, police were watching Cleveland’s Instagram account, where the young men were live-streaming the crime spree. According to the criminal complaint, they wore black and red and displayed a handgun.
At 4:30 the next morning, Cleveland went live again, threatening a shooting on Orchard Street. Police followed his trail.
At 4:38 a.m., another user joined the live stream and invited the shooters to engage in a fight in Hyde Park, a community in the city's West Side. Police went to the area and found the vehicle the suspects were seen driving in earlier that evening in surveillance footage.
At around 5 a.m., Aiden Deininger shot at an unmarked police vehicle five times. There were three police detectives inside the car.
Scranton Police Officer Kyle Gilmartin was shot twice in the head. He is recovering at a rehab facility near Philadelphia.
One officer in the vehicle returned fire and shot Deininger, leaving him critically wounded.
Prosecutors are charging 19-year-old Jeremiah Cleveland with reckless endangerment, aggravated assault, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, and illegal possession of firearms. He is locked up in the Lackawanna County prison without bail.
In an interview with police at the hospital, Deininger said that Cleveland directed him to execute the shootings on the night of January 10th. He alleges that he doesn't know the targeted individuals, but that they were involved in an altercation with Cleveland's girlfriend, according to the criminal complaint.
In an update posted Feb. 5, an organizer of the GoFundMe in support of Officer Gilmartin wrote, "Kyle has been walking on a treadmill and with a cane. His speech is getting better and he's working hard with several therapy sessions a day! His progress has been described as remarkable."
