Cleveland Cop Will Not Face Charges In Tamir Rice Shooting

In a report released Monday the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office included a photo of what it says is a real gun next to the replica gun 12-year-old Tamir Rice was using the day he was shot dead by a Cleveland, Ohio, police officer, saying the pellet gun was “functionally identical” to a real weapon.

A grand jury failed to indict the officers involved in the death of a 12 year old boy in Cleveland.

The report states that there is evidence that on the day of the incident, at least two people warned Rice not to use the gun without the orange tip in a public place, but there is no evidence that he ever saw the warning labels on the toy’s packaging.

The Ferguson case became one of a series of police killings that drew protests – in New York, Baltimore, North Charleston, S.C., and other cities – by demonstrators denouncing the way the police treat African-Americans.

In a statement, Tamir’s family said it was “saddened and disappointed by this outcome – but not surprised”. On Monday, prosecutors said a grand jury concluded that Loehmann reasonably believed that it was a real gun and that his life was in danger.

“My family and I are in pain and devastated by the non-indictment of officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback for the murder of our beloved Tamir”.

“The death of Tamir Rice was an absolute tragedy, but it was not, by the law that binds us, a crime”, McGinty said, before adding that he informed Tamir’s mother of the decision before announcing it publicly.

The caller said the gun might not be real and the perpetrator could be a juvenile.

A protest over the grand jury’s decision not to indict two white Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice has grown to about 100 people.

The officers have been on restricted duty since the shooting and will remain so through an administrative review, police said.

“With each delay in the process, the chances for indictment and successful prosecution of the officers grow slimmer”.

The family of Rice says that they hope the Criminal Justice System will step in to conduct a “real investigation”. The settlement was prompted largely by a vehicle chase that ended with the killing of a couple in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire. We will continue our independent review of this matter, assess all available materials and determine what actions are appropriate, given the strict burdens and requirements imposed by applicable federal civil rights laws.

McGinty urged those who disagree with the grand jury decision to react peacefully, and said: “It is time for the community and all of us to start to heal”.

The family is suing the city, federal prosecutors are looking into possible civil rights charges against Timothy Loehmann and his partner, and the two officers face a departmental investigation that could result in disciplinary action, including firing.

The Cleveland police initially investigated the case, then the county sheriff’s office conducted its own inquiry.

The Rice family have said police fired too quickly and should have used a Taser, a non-lethal weapon. “She was broken up”.

Outside the recreation center, protesters chanted, “No justice, no peace!” ProPublica’s Ryan Gabrielson, Ryann Grochowski Jones, and Eric Sagara reported: ‘One way of appreciating that stark disparity, ProPublica’s analysis shows, is to calculate how many more whites over those three years would have had to have been killed for them to have been at equal risk.