The fatal shooting is drawing comparisons to 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by Cleveland police while he was holding a BB gun.
Advertisement
A WHITE police officer in the U.S. has shot and killed a 13-year-old black boy after the teenager allegedly pulled out a pellet gun, in a killing with unavoidable echoes of the Tamir Rice case out of Cleveland. The officers followed them into an alley when police say a suspect, later identified as Tyre, pulled a gun from his waistband, and an officer shot him several times. A grand jury will ultimately decide whether Mason will face criminal charges, police said.
The officer involved has been a police officer for nine years, who recently transferred to the area where the shooting took place.
Police said King removed a BB gun from his waistband, when Mason fired “multiple” times and killed him.
At a vigil organized Thursday by the People’s Justice Project, King’s 13-year-old sister Marshay Caldwell was the only family member to speak.
Authorities have said officers investigating the robbery report east of downtown Columbus spotted three males who matched the description of the suspects.
Braxton said he and Tyre initially had run away but complied when police told them to get down.
Authorities said it was unclear if the shooting was caught on surveillance or cellphone video. “We got down, but my friend got up and ran …”
King’s death comes almost two years after the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was black, by a white Cleveland, Ohio police officer who was responding to reports of a suspect with a gun in a city park.
A message seeking comment was left with the head of the police union representing Mason. Green was killed earlier this year in a police-involved shooting. He was taken to a children’s hospital following the shooting but was later pronounced dead, according to Columbus police.
Walton also quoted the boy’s family as saying involvement in an armed robbery would be “so out of character” for King. “This is the last thing any police officer wants”.
Attorneys for King’s family said the child enjoyed playing sports – football, hockey, soccer – and called for a thorough, “unbiased” investigation. A rookie officer shot the boy nearly immediately after pulling up in his cruiser.
“The family of Tyre King asks for support from their community as they seek answers in this tragic killing”, said co-counsel Sean Walton. Kaufman refused police orders to drop his firearm before Mason fatally shot him. They said he had a slight build and, if anything, was on the small side for his age.
Braxton told the paper that King was shot four or five times, asking “Why didn’t they tase him?”
The mayor cited “easy access to guns, whether they are firearms or replicas”, as a serious problem, adding, “A 13-year-old is dead in the city of Columbus because of our obsession with guns”.
Tamir Rice, 12, was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland on November 22, 2014.
The family said in a statement released by a Columbus law firm that it retained to investigate the shooting that “numerous witness accounts are in direct conflict with the officer’s version of events”.
Advertisement
Loehmann, who responded after a 911 caller reported seeing someone with a pistol that might have been fake, said he thought the boy appeared older and had a real gun.
