The Outcome Of Tamir Rice Case Was Disappointing But Predictable

Ohio Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge released a statement in response to the decision not to indict the officers in which she said that McGinty’s handling of the case “tainted the outcome”.

The prosecutor in Cleveland will hold a Monday afternoon news conference to make an announcement about the grand jury that has been considering whether to charge two Cleveland police officers for shooting 12-year-old Tamir Rice to death.

Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer on November 22, 2014, after he reportedly pulled a replica gun at the city park.

Neither officer Timothy Loehmann, 26, who shot the boy, nor his partner Frank Garmback, 46, who was driving the patrol vehicle, will face charges over the death.

Previous reports concluded that Loehmann shot Rice within two seconds of opening his vehicle door. Their statement called into question McGinty’s hiring of an “expert” who only supported the officer’s assertions, as well as allowing the offices to read prepared statements to the grand jury without cross examination.

“It’s against this backdrop that he got this call”, Maloney said.

Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, issued a statement through her attorneys criticizing the grand jury process and renewing calls for federal charges against the involved officers. The grand jury’s decision comes 13 months after the high-profile police shooting, which intensified a nationwide debate about police use of force and galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement.

Tamir was gunned down by patrolman Timothy Loehmann within two seconds of a police cruiser skidding to a stop near the boy outside a city recreation center in November 2014. “This case is a tragedy for the Rice family and officers involved”.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of OH said it will continue its independent review of the case to “determine what actions are appropriate, given the strict burdens and requirements imposed by applicable federal civil rights laws”.

Tamir’s death was among a string of police-involved killings of black suspects including Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in NY and Freddie Gray in Baltimore that have stirred racial tensions and set off nationwide protests over perceived injustices within the US justice system.

The shooting of Tamir has sparked protests across the state and it’s believed there will be more protests at Cudell Park, the site of the shooting, on Monday evening (local time).

McGinty said that the shooting might have been avoided if a police radio worker had relayed to the officers that the caller had reported that the person with the gun was “probably a juvenile” and that the gun might be fake.

“Although there is evidence that on the day of the incident, at least two people warned Tamir about the dangerousness of using the gun in a public place, there is no evidence that Tamir ever saw any warnings from the gun’s packaging”, the report said.

But Radley Balko of the Washington Post said back in March that talking about legality can take us only so far.

He said Tamir most likely meant to hand the airsoft pistol to the officers or to show them it was not a real weapon.

McGinty said an enhanced video of the shooting showed that Rice was reaching into his waistband and pulling out the toy weapon.

“It would be irresponsible and unreasonable if the law required a police officer to wait and see if the gun was real”, McGinty told reporters. “But there was no way for the officers to know that”.