Grindr meeting turns violent when two Cleveland men are bound and robbed

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A meeting on the Grindr dating app led to a violent home invasion that saw four men bind two men with cords, place pillow cases over their heads and threaten to kill them.

One man was identified and charged but is not in custody. Anthony Williams, 19, of Cleveland is charged with aggravated burglary. The other three men are at large.

The robbery stemmed from an April 28 encounter on the popular gay dating app. A 29-year-old invited a man to his apartment in the 3000 block of South Moreland Boulevard to smoke marijuana after the two matched on the app, police said.

Two days later, the same man sent a text at 10:45 p.m. to the 29 year old and asked if he could come over to the apartment. There was a knock on the apartment door a few minutes later.

Four men -- including the man he met on Grindr -- burst into the apartment with guns, the report says. There was a 31-year-old man already in the apartment at the time the robbers arrived.

The men shouted gay slurs at both men, police said.

The robbers ordered the two men to lie on the ground. They put pillow cases over the heads and tied their hands and feet with bed sheets and cords, according to police reports.

The robbers went through the men's phones and told them that they knew who their family members were and threatened to kill them, according to police.

One of the robbers demanded to know where the 31-year-old man's car was parked, according to police. The man told them, and the robbers stole his 2006 Honda Accord.

They also took a television, computer speakers, two cellphones, a laptop computer and an assortment of alcohol bottles, according to police reports.

Eight days later, Williams was driving the stolen car south on Babbitt Road in Euclid when he ran a red light and crashed into a car at Fox Avenue, according to police.

His car spun out of control and hit a third car in the oncoming lanes on Babbit. The car bounced off the third car, knocked over a school-zone sign and came to a rest in the front lawn of Briardale Greens Golf Course, police reports say.

Williams was arrested, and posted a $3,500 bond. He was released from jail. Cleveland police later identified him as one of the home invasion suspects, according to court records.