Did you know a man who shined a green laser light into cockpit of plane sentenced to 3 years

Man who shined laser into airplanes sentenced to 3 years
CLEVELAND — A Brook Park man who shined a green laser into the cockpits of airplanes and a helicopter last June will spend three years in prison after pleading guilty to those crimes and separate drug-dealing charges.

Justin Dewalt, 26, pleaded guilty to several felonies and was sentenced Friday, officials said.

According to the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office, the laser incidents unfolded this way:

Dewalt bought a high-power laser off the Internet and brought it to a party on West 130th Street June 4. That night, flight crews of two planes about to land at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport reported that someone hit their cockpits with a laser.

One airliner carried about 20 people, the other about 100.

About an hour later, a laser hit the cockpit of a MetroHealth Medical Center helicopter flying a patient to the hospital from Elyria.

The helicopter pilot told Cleveland police the area where the laser came from and when a pilot for the police helicopter flew over to investigate, he, too, was hit in the eye by a laser that was coming from a moving car.

Cleveland police stopped the car a short time later and found Dewalt in the back seat with a laser.