In Tyre’s case, a caller reported he’d been robbed of $10 by a group of people and that someone in the group had a gun.
Advertisement
The 19-year-old friend, Demetrius Braxton, told The Columbus Dispatch that King wanted to rob someone for money and that he was with Tyre when the shooting occurred.
The shooting will be investigated thoroughly, authorities said. He said Tamir was trying to either hand the weapon over to police or show them it wasn’t real, but the patrolmen had no way of knowing that. Tyre then got up, ran and was shot, he told the newspaper.
Braxton was interviewed by police but not charged.
In King’s death, detectives retrieved the weapon from the scene of the shooting and later determined it was a BB gun, which shoots small round pellets, with an attached laser, police said. She says the official manner of death is pending, with a final report not expected for several weeks.
Tyre had three sisters and a baby brother, said another family attorney, Sean Walton. They may hold a news conference next week.
“It’s a very hard time for the city, and we want to make sure we’re available to listen and answer questions”, city spokeswoman Robin Davis said. “What is now out there might not be true”.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said, “We ought to be shocked and angry as a community”.
“There is something wrong in this country, and it is bringing its epidemic to our city streets”, Ginther said Thursday.
Members of Tyre King’s family console each other during a vigil for 13-year-old Tyre King Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio.
Police and city authorities also promised a full investigation, while rejecting comparisons to the 2014 killing of 12-year-old Tamir in Cleveland.
Police say the officers saw three males matching the descriptions of the suspects and tried to speak with them, when two of them ran off.
The officers followed them into an alley. A police news release says King pulled a gun from his waistband. Tyre later died at a hospital. The officer that shot King is a nine-year veteran on the force.
This is the second time in as many years OH has been rocked by the death of a black child killed by a white officer who mistook a toy for a deadly threat. The Columbus Dispatch reported that investigators concluded Mason acted within policy in that case. Mason has been placed on paid administrative leave for about a week.
A message seeking comment was left with the head of the police union representing Mason.
“Of course he is, you know, not happy about having to be in that situation, but at the end of the day he had to do what he had to do”, Pappas said.
Mr Walton has called for an independent investigation.
Police identified the victim as Tyree King, although a family lawyer said the boy’s first name was Tyre. He says the family believed that Tyre being involved in an armed robbery would be “so out of character” for him.
Tyre played several sports, including football, and was in the young scholars program at school, he said.
As recently as yesterday a spokesperson for the People’s Justice Project was telling local reporters the story about a robbery was just an allegation by the police. A rookie officer shot the boy nearly immediately after pulling up in his auto. The officer and his partner were cleared of wrongdoing.
You are reading news and information on LongIsland.com, Long Island’s Most Popular Website, Since 1996.
Advertisement
The report cites research pointing to a “shooter culture” resulting from White fear, which stems from “implicit associations between Black individuals and criminality”.
