Cleveland Cops cleared in Tamir Rice shooting

One, Art Blakey, from Cleveland, said: “There never has been any justice in these police murders”.

Caucus members urged on Monday that independent prosecutors be appointed for all deaths caused by police to erase any doubts about impartiality.

Tamir was carrying a pellet gun when rookie patrolman Timothy Loehmann opened fire on the black youngster in November 2014. He admitted that Tamir’s death was a tragedy, but remarked that the police officers had not committed any crime. Grand juries declined to indict the officers involved. Loehmann and his training partner, Frank Garmback had responded to a 911 call about a man waving a gun.

Loehmann and Garmback will remain on restricted duty until the review is complete.

“There have been lessons learned already”, McGinty said. “We will continue to support Samaria Rice as we call for a special national prosecutor to monitor such cases and we stand by the Rice family as they are dealt this blow during the holidays”.

The officers said they believed Rice was older than 12.

“We have made some changes not only in terms of our policies, tactics, process, procedure, but we’ve reached an agreement with the Department of Justice in terms of the Consent Decree”. And it was not until later that they realized he was a 12-year-old boy, they said. The officers are white and Rice was black.

Cleveland State University law Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich says prosecutors have a lot of discretion in how they present to a grand jury. “When they act for the safety of the community, they’re vilified for it”.

In announcing the decision Monday, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said he did not recommend that the grand jury bring any charges.

The November 2014 death of Tamir Rice – a black child who had been carrying a replica gun in a playground when he was shot dead – and the fatal shootings of other African Americans by police have triggered protests across the country.

The Airsoft replica of a.45-caliber semiautomatic handgun usually has an orange tip on it, but Rice’s gun did not. McGinty said he was in agreement with the decision and suggested the grand jury not to charge the police officers Frank Garmback and Timothy Loehmann involved in the Rice incidence. 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.

“With his hands pulling the gun out and his elbow coming up, I knew it was a gun and it was coming out”, Mr Loehmann said in a statement he read to the grand jury. He says the community is disappointed, but not surprised by the grand jury’s decision. And he said Tamir was big for his age – 1.7 metres and 80kg – and could have easily passed for someone much older.

Case Western Reserve University law professor Lewis Katz said the city would be vulnerable at trial because of the failure of the 911 call taker to pass on key information – namely, that the caller said the gunman was probably a juvenile and the gun probably wasn’t real. Meyer says a dispatcher didn’t relay that to the officers. Tamir was holding a pellet gun when he was killed.

McGinty said he informed Rice’s mother earlier about the grand jury’s decision.

The footage sparked days of street demonstrations, the forced resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and a broad federal civil rights investigation of the police department’s practices and how allegations of officer misconduct are handled. “Watch the video”, said Subodh Chandra.