Ex-Campus Officer Pleads Not Guilty To Murder In Deadly Shooting

A judge on Thursday set a bond of $1 million for a former University of Cincinnati campus police officer charged with the murder of an unarmed black man he had stopped for a missing license plate.

Ray Tensing, 25, wore a striped jail uniform at his arraignment Thursday.

Deters scoffed at Tensing’s claim that he was dragged by DuBose’s auto, saying the officer “purposely killed him”.

In his report of the incident, Tensing said that he had been dragged along by Dubose’s auto, giving him a reason to fire his weapon. Tensing’s attorney, Stew Mathews, told the Fox 19 television station in Cincinnati that his client was being “thrown under the bus” by the prosecutor and the school.

The case comes as the United States grapples with heightened racial tensions in the wake of a series of high-profile incidents of African Americans being killed by police in disputed circumstances.

Samuel DuBose’s family speaks on the importance of police body cameras and their hope that people will react peacefully to his death. Using words such as “asinine” and “senseless”, the veteran prosecutor known for tough stands on urban crime called it “a chicken crap” traffic stop.

“I think he lost his temper because Mr. DuBose wouldn’t get out of his auto”. Then the video becomes shaky, but a gunshot can be heard and DuBose appears to be slumped in the seat before the vehicle rolls away, coming to stop at a nearby corner. The shot hit the unarmed DuBose in the head, killing him. “People don’t get shot for a traffic stop unless they are violent towards the police officer, and he (DuBose) wasn’t”, Deters said.

Tensing has been a police officer for a little more than four years, joining the Greenhills police force part time in April 2011. Members of the victim’s family were in court. But he added that, given the evidence he had seen, he did not believe there should be an indictment.

Deters said the university should disband its department and turn over policing to the city. A Washington Post investigation found that thousands of police shootings over the last decade have resulted in a few dozen officers being charged.

“For a police officer with no prior record who has lived here his entire life and not going to go anywhere, I thought it was excessive”, he said.

DuBose Family Lawyer, Mark O’Mara, says, “You can’t look at that video and say that police report follows the video. A grand jury, Mr. Deters announced, indicted the officer on a murder charge, punishable by life in prison, and a voluntary manslaughter charge”.

A rally began soon after at the city’s courthouse, passing along the Central Parkway and continuing up Vine Street-where some of Cincinnati’s most visible gentrification has occurred.

Deters has said the officer should have just let DuBose drive off.