Officers in Tamir Rice case still in jeopardy

Prosecutors in Cleveland are defending their decision to recommend that a grand jury not bring charges against two officers in the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

Although video surveillance taken of the city park where the boy was shot and 911 dispatcher recordings raised questions of whether their actions were reasonable, Loehmann – a white rookie Cleveland officer who was previously deemed unfit for duty as a police officer elsewhere in OH – fired at Rice, and Garmback – who drove a police cruiser toward the boy just seconds before the shooting – were cleared of any wrongdoing on the grounds that they feared for their lives.

About 50 protesters marched peacefully in front of the county courthouse in the late afternoon and chanted, “Justice for Tamir”. McGinty said Tamir was trying to either hand the weapon over to police or show them it wasn’t real, but the officer and his partner had no way of knowing that.

Organized by the group Mass. Action Against Police Brutality, the protest was a reaction to a Cleveland’s grand jury’s decision Monday not to indict the officer who shot Rice on November 22.

“She has been cheated twice, first by the loss of her boy and second by the prosecutor”, Chandra said of Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice. After this investigation-which took over a year to unfold-and Prosecutor McGinty’s mishandling of this case, we no longer trust the local criminal-justice system, which we view as corrupt.

Mr Loehmann’s lawyer, Henry Hilow, said the officer carries a heavy burden. “Clearly, when you lose a 12-year-old – what more can you say about how tragic it is?” That disregard pervades every aspect of this case and begins with the fact that the department failed to even review Officer Loehmann’s work history before giving him the power of life and death over the citizens of Cleveland.

Prosecutor McGinty deliberately sabotaged the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers’ defense attorney. A judge ultimately acquitted the patrolman of manslaughter.

Tamir was carrying a borrowed airsoft gun that looked like a real gun but shot nonlethal plastic pellets.

Police killings, especially of African Americans, have sparked protests in cities across the United States over the past two years.

Shortly after McGinty announced there would be no charges in the case, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) released a statement saying in part hat the case was, “an indictment against Prosecutor McGinty whose handling of this case in my opinion tainted the outcome”.

“They run a big risk if they don’t”, he said.