Two Outside Reviews Find Cleveland Officer’s Shooting of Tamir Rice Justified

Subodh Chandra says the Rice family wants the officers held accountable and it seems “the prosecutor’s office has been on a 12-month quest” to avoid it.

Reports from a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and a Denver prosecutor were included in documents released Saturday by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, which asked for the outside reviews.

“These supposed “experts” – all pro-police – dodge the simple fact that the officers rushed Tamir and shot him immediately without assessing the situation in the least”, Chandra said in a statement.

(Cleveland): The family of Tamir Rice responded to documents released over the weekend that sites two independent legal experts stating that the actions by police in the shooting of Tamir Rice were “reasonable”. “Reasonable jurors could find that conduct unreasonable”.

Rice was black while the officer who shot him is white, and the case is one in a series of high-profile deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement which have raised questions about the use of force by police.

The other report – from S. Lamar Sims, senior chief deputy district attorney in Denver – said the video shows Loehmann exiting the auto rapidly and moving toward cover, which suggests he felt there was an imminent threat. The reports will be presented as evidence to a grand jury that will decide whether to bring charges against officer Timothy Loehmann.

The death of Tamir Rice came two days before a St. Louis County grand jury decided not to indict a white officer in the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Tamir died in the hospital early the following day. They found that Officer Timothy Loehmann acted reasonably under the law when he shot Rice on November. 22.

The death of Tamir Rice and Mike Brown and the decision not to prosecute the officers responsible sparked protests and a nationwide debate over race and police tactics.

McGinty claims that he released the reports in the interest of transparency. Also that month – in a non-binding review of the case – a Cleveland judge found probable cause for the charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide and dereliction of duty against Loehmann.

“(Garmback) approached and stopped in such fashion that Officer Loehmann was in a position of great peril – he was within feet of a gunman who had stood up, was approaching the police vehicle and reaching toward his waistband”, Sims added.

“The officers did not create the violent situation – they were responding to a situation fraught with the potential for violence to citizens”, Sims said.