100 Years in 100 Days: Shaker Heights Municipal Court Bombing

Shaker Heights Patch is celebrating the 100 years of Shaker Heights history by creating an online scrapbook. Each day for 100 days, we'll feature a photograph that helps tell the story of Shaker Heights.

Though we are dedicating this feature to celebrate the history of Shaker Heights, sometimes notable events that tell a city's story aren't happy ones.

More than 40 years ago, Shaker Heights resident Martin Berns carried a bomb into the Shaker Heights Municipal Court building, which housed the . The bomb detonated, killing Berns and injuring more than a dozen people, according to information compiled by Cleveland Historical.

The building was destroyed. The city built a new structure across the street on Lee Road. 

It was later discovered that Berns, 21, had shot and wounded his former psychiatrist at his home on Fernway Road earlier that day, Feb. 2, 1970.

According to Cleveland Historical, the psychiatrist ordered Berns to be institutionalized five years earlier. Shaker Heights police escorted Berns to the psychiatric hospital at that time, and it was rumored that the incident was Bern's motivation for bombing the department.

You can join our celebration of Shaker Heights history. Share your memories in the comments. Or upload your photos and we'll feature them in this scrapbook. Follow #ShakerCentennial on Twitter.