A Cuyahoga County grand jury has indicted Tyrelle Taylor on one count of murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter and 31 further counts — 33 counts in all — over the October 18 downtown Cleveland hit-and-run flight that killed 35-year-old bicyclist William “Frank” Mays, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley's office announced on Friday, October 30, 2026. The indictment is the major new development in a case Awaaz Punjab first reported when Taylor surrendered to police on October 21; an indictment is a formal grand-jury charge, not a conviction, and Taylor is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
According to the prosecutor's account of the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) investigation, the flight began on Sunday, October 18 at about 4:50 p.m., when Taylor was driving a black 2010 Ford F-150 Raptor on West 6th Street in downtown Cleveland toward West St. Clair Avenue, revving his engine and driving through crosswalks while several pedestrians were nearby. CDP officers stationed on foot on West 6th Street attempted to stop him; as they did, he suddenly pulled away, striking another vehicle's bumper — the first of seven vehicles the prosecutor's account says were struck or sideswiped in the flight.
Left of centre, through a red light, and across the bridge on three wheels
Taylor turned right onto West St. Clair Avenue, drove left of centre over the double yellow lines, ran a red light and turned left onto West 9th Street into oncoming traffic, nearly striking several pedestrians in crosswalks — some on foot and some on bicycles — the prosecutor's office said. Still driving in the oncoming lane on West 9th, he struck four vehicles stopped at the stoplight at West 9th and Superior Avenue, an impact that broke off his truck's front passenger wheel.
He then turned right onto Superior Avenue, struck a bicycle-lane flex post, and continued — now on three wheels — over the Detroit-Superior Bridge toward Ohio City. Approaching West 25th Street, he veered into the green-labelled, clearly marked bicycle lane on the far right shoulder, sideswiped a sixth vehicle and struck Mays, who was riding his bicycle in the bicycle lane, according to the prosecutor's account. Taylor continued fleeing, struck a seventh vehicle, turned left onto West 28th Street and crashed into the centre of the roundabout at West 28th Street and Franklin Boulevard, where he abandoned the truck and fled on foot.
A change of clothes at a mission, then a surrender three days later
After leaving the truck in the roundabout, Taylor fled for several blocks and approached a mission location near West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, where, in an effort to evade police, he told several good Samaritans that he was homeless and needed clothing, the prosecutor's office said. They provided him with clothing; he changed into it and fled the area on foot. CDP officers who had been directing traffic nearby located his vehicle, and Mays was found in the grass several feet behind the truck. Cleveland EMS took Mays to hospital, where he was pronounced dead — approximately 39 minutes after transport and 90 minutes after he was struck, according to the prosecutor's release. The police investigation found that Mays had become lodged in the truck's wheel well and had been dragged for approximately 0.4 miles (2,112 feet), and that surveillance footage and witness testimony linked Taylor to the crimes.
On October 21, Taylor — identified in local television reporting as 26 years old — turned himself in and was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and CDP, the development Awaaz Punjab reported at the time, when he faced initial charges reported locally as aggravated vehicular homicide and failure to stop. He had an initial court appearance on October 27. Friday's grand-jury indictment replaces that early picture with a far heavier charge sheet, headed by murder.
The full charge sheet
The October 30 indictment charges: one count of murder; one count of involuntary manslaughter; 19 counts of felonious assault; one count of tampering with evidence; two counts of failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer; and nine counts of failure to stop after an accident. The prosecutor's office did not, in its announcement, break the 19 felonious assault counts down victim by victim; the account it published describes a flight through crowded Sunday-afternoon downtown streets in which pedestrians in crosswalks were nearly struck and seven vehicles were hit before the fatal strike on the bridge approach.
A grand-jury indictment means jurors found enough evidence to charge, not that the charges are proven. Everything in the prosecutor's account of the October 18 flight is the State's allegation at this stage. Tyrelle Taylor will enter a plea at arraignment and is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Why this case reaches beyond Cleveland
The streets in this account — West 6th, West 9th, Superior Avenue and the Detroit-Superior Bridge into Ohio City — are the everyday downtown core that Cleveland's workers, delivery drivers and cyclists share, and the marked green bicycle lane on the bridge approach exists precisely to separate a rider like Mays from traffic. For Awaaz Punjab's readers, including the Punjabi and South Asian families and truck and delivery drivers who work across Ohio's cities, the case is a stark example of the charge Ohio law reserves for its most serious fatal-flight cases: a murder count, which is uncommon in a traffic death and signals that prosecutors intend to argue the flight itself, step by step, was the crime — not a moment's mistake.
What happens next
Taylor will be arraigned at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center on a date the prosecutor's office described as “at a later date” — no arraignment date was given in Friday's announcement. At arraignment he will be formally read the 33 counts and enter a plea; a judge will then address bond and set the case on a trial track in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Awaaz Punjab sends its condolences to the family of William “Frank” Mays, 35, of Highland Hills, as reported by local outlets — a man who was riding in a marked bicycle lane on a Sunday afternoon and never came home.