Expert Argues Tamir Rice’s Hands Were In Pockets When Shot

A Cuyahoga County grand jury is hearing evidence to decide if either Loehmann, a rookie cop, or his training officer, Frank Garmback, should face charges in the killing.

Loehmann and Garmback said in their accounts of the incident that they ordered Tamir to show them his hands.

Tamir Rice’s family hired an expert who has a new finding after analyzing the 2014 footage of Cleveland police shooting the 12-year-old.

Tamir Rice was shot by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann on November 22, 2014, in the playground area of the Cudell Recreation Center. Tamir died a day later.

Because Lehmann fired one second after leaping from the vehicle, Wobrock concludes, Loehmann had to have unholstered his gun before leaving the auto because one second is not enough time to draw the gun and fire it.

Wobrock found that in the split second before the shooting, Tamir raised his right hand – while still in his jacket pocket -in a defensive posture.

The family of Tamir Rice has issued new export reports in response to the videos released by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty last month.

Two other experts involved in the case agreed with Wobrock’s conclusion that Rice wasn’t reaching for the toy gun when he was shot, according to CBS News. Those notes say Tamir’s hands were in front of his stomach as the police auto approached.

An excerpt from the report produced by Jesse Wobrock, expert witness for the Rice family. Rice’s family has requested a special prosecutor because they feel McGinty is not working hard enough to secure an indictment in the case.

“We welcome and will review all credible relevant evidence from any source”, McGinty said Saturday, according to the AP.

Rice’s family has criticized McGinty over the length of the investigation and is demanding that charges be brought against Loehmann and his partner.

Two of the reports were written by experts who have previously called the shooting “unreasonable” and “unjustified” -Jeffrey Noble, former deputy chief of police in Irvine, Calif., and Roger Clark, a police procedures consultant and veteran of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

The caller who placed a 911 call before the shooting told the dispatcher the gun might not be real and the man might be a juvenile, but that information wasn’t passed on to the officers.