United States police to review shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice

The initial caller who contacted the police told the 911 dispatcher that he thought Rice’s gun was a toy, and that he believed Rice to be a juvenile – information that was never passed on to the responding officers.

Protestors sing in front of a mock casket for Tamir Rice. He said patrolman Timothy Loehmann was justified in opening fire: “He had reason to fear for his life”. The Vice President of Not in our Town, Billings said, “We stand up to injustice, we stand for an inclusive community, and we stand with the victim”.

Talks of protesters in the city was met with a comment from Jackson stating the city welcomes them and wants to protect them.

It’s possible the police officers involved could face disciplinary action if the committee set to review the case determines policies or procedures were violated, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said.

Now, “a 12-year-old child is dead”, and authorities didn’t even try to hold Loehmann criminally responsible “for over a year”, Reece says.

Since the grand jury’s decision, everyone-writers most visibly-has been processing the case’s year-long arc. But he told reporters that he is also closely monitoring the response to the Rice decision and has been in frequent contact with state and local law enforcement officials, state lawmakers representing Cleveland, and religious leaders.

While the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland has said it will review the circumstances of the shooting, the legal hurdles to prosecuting a civil rights case are considered especially high. Jackson said while people have a right to protest, damage to property and violence against others will not be tolerated.

A grand jury on Monday declined to criminally indict the two officers in Tamir’s killing in November 2014.

The family is suing the city. That’s a fact that might be interesting if McGinty were a tour guide showing us around the Cudell Recreation Center grounds, and not a prosecutor discussing the shooting death of a young boy.

“On Monday, we quoted Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty saying that, based on enhanced video footage of Rice’s shooting, “[it] is now indisputable that Tamir was drawing his gun from his waist as the police slid toward him and Officer Loehmann exited the vehicle”.

“Simply put, given this flawless storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police”, Cuyahoga County Justice Centre Prosecutor Tim McGinty said.

In July, after a public petition to arrest the officers, Adrine ruled that there was probable cause to bring charges against them.

It was not until after the shooting, with the gun on the ground, that police learned the boy was playing with a replica firearm that shoot nonlethal plastic pellets. The grand jury first met in October. The officers said in statements that Rice appeared much older and reached for the toy gun that was tucked in his waistband before Loehmann shot at him. “We’ve had only one hearing” and just a handful of sponsors have attached their names to it, she says.