Tamir Rice Shooting: Officers Who Shot Boy Cleared By Grand Jury

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is now investigating the matter to determine whether or not Rice’s rights were violated. He said charges against the officers wouldn’t bring justice for Tamir. It turned out to be a pellet gun. The city also reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice this year to institute numerous reforms, including an overhaul of the police department’s use-of-force policies.

The report came in the wake of a grand jury’s decision on Monday to not indict officer Timothy Loehmann or his partner, Frank Garmback, in connection with Rice’s death.

“Prosecutors continue to wield unchecked authority over Black communities”, Robinson said in the statement.

“We all lose, however, if we give in to anger and frustration and let it divide us”, he said. The person who reported Rice said it looked like a kid playing with a toy, but the officers were not given this information.

“The way Prosecutor McGinty has mishandled the grand-jury process has compounded the grief of this family…This special treatment would never be given to non-police suspects”. “The prosecutor is covering up his own mishandling of the process”.

McGinty says a “perfect storm of human error” led to Tamir’s death. Rice’s family and others sharply criticized McGinty’s conduct throughout the grand jury process, arguing that he was manipulating the proceedings to the benefit of the officers. Tamir, at 5-foot-7 and 175 pounds, could pass for a grown-up. It was missing its telltale orange tip.

Particularly relevant to the Tamir Rice case: “Black 13-year-olds were miscategorized as adults by police officers (average age error 4.59 years)”.

A witness called 911, reporting there was “a guy with a pistol”, adding that the weapon was “probably” fake. Meyer said a dispatcher didn’t relay that to the officers.

A newly released sheriff’s report on the fatal police shooting of Tamir Rice shows that the Cleveland officer who shot the boy told investigators that the 12-year-old reached for a gun just before the patrolman opened fire.

The gun was in the waistband of Tamir’s trousers. McGinty said the evidence supported Loehmann’s explanation. Tamir’s family is saddened and disappointed by this outcome-but not surprised.

“The tragedy of Tamir Rice must be seen with unblinking clarity through the lens of a series of incidents of police misconduct committed by members of the Cleveland Police Department over years”. But Mr. McGinty said there was no way for the officers to know that as they pulled up.

It was the video, however, that revealed “it is now indisputable that Tamir was drawing his gun from his waist as the police vehicle slid toward him”, McGinty said, although even he concedes the child may well have been trying to turn the gun over.

This unusual accommodation was highly beneficial to the officers, allowing them to present their version of the events without being subject to any questioning.

Prosecutors say the police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice outside a Cleveland recreation center last year won’t face criminal charges.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty speaks at the Boys and Girls Club about an investigation into firearm sales Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, in Cleveland.

Rice’s family – who have denounced the judicial proceedings, saying that they were created to exculpate the officers – have sued the city of Cleveland and both policemen for the boy’s death.

About two dozen protesters gathered Monday in downtown Cleveland and at the Cudell Recreation Center, the westside park where Rice was killed.