Cleveland attorney’s office shot up

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF) – Last night, the law offices of Chancey, Kanavos, Love and Painter were the target of an attack that luckily didn’t result in injury because no one was inside the building.

“The first shot that occurred came through this window or a shot came and right there is my desk,” says attorney Scott Kanavos.

Fortunately, Kanavos was not working after hours at his desk when a shooter started blasting bullets through the window.

And luckily none of the staff nor other attorneys were here either when it happened.

“There’s people who could have been in here cleaning. There’s people who could have been in here working overtime and it could have been someone’s life that was lost,” says Evie West, spokesperson for Cleveland Police.

Investigators say the shooting likely happened sometime between 8:30 pm and 10:00 pm Tuesday night, but no one knew about it until an employee arrived to work early Wednesday morning and discovered glass on the floor and bullet holes in several windows.

Kanavos says, “I feel violated for what has happened here. Simultaneously, my heart cries out to the person who actually did this. I don’t know why he, or she did this. I don’t know who they are. But I want them to know that we stand ready to hear what they have to say so they can vocalize their frustration with either us or any individual here in a more constructive manner.”

The question now is who would target an attorney’s office and why.

“Right now I think we have the list narrowed down to a possible 200 suspects. Getting frustrated with a lawyer or even hating a lawyer is not that uncommon. if you can’t hate a lawyer then who can you hate?” Kanavos says.

But firing bullets into a lawyers office is a dangerous way to express frustration, which is why Kanavos is issuing this stern message: “Reach out to law enforcement now. Come to us and cooperate and admit to what you did. We will do everything in our power to assist and intervene with law enforcement to make sure that we can reach a fair, just settlement of this case.”

Cleveland police say they are using area surveillance video to help crack open the case.