According to a court filing, the city of Cleveland has agreed to pay Rice’s family $6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, but the officers responsible for his killing will likely come out unscathed.
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Tamir’s family and estate have long said that the city, officers, and dispatchers involved in his November 22, 2014, death acted recklessly.
Tamir Rice was gunned down outside a recreation center on November 23, 2014 by Timothy Loehmann, a white police officer who was responding to a 911 emergency call about a man pointing a gun at people in the center.
Rice was holding an airsoft pistol that police said looked like a real firearm when he was shot and killed by rookie Officer Timothy Loehmann. Last December a Cleveland grand jury declined to bring charges in the case.
“At the end of the day, a 12-year-old child lost their life, and that should not have happened in the city of Cleveland”, he said.
Lawyers for the the Rice family said that while the settlement is “historic in financial terms, no amount of money can adequately compensate for the loss of a life”.
The Cleveland police union’s statement, which was addressed merely to “Media”, noted Rice’s death as a tragedy for the Rice family, “as well as our involved Officers and their families”.
The payout is the latest seven-figure settlement paid to the families of African-Americans who were killed by police officers.
Earlier this month, the Chicago City Council agreed to pay almost $6.5 million to settle two separate cases of alleged police misconduct.
As Cleveland.com points out, the settlement doesn’t clear up all possible legal issues around Rice’s death-a federal review of whether the officers involved in Rice’s shooting violated civil rights laws is still underway. “Nothing will bring Tamir back”, said the statement.
Considering painful experiences like those, the $6 million settlement may seem like cause for celebration to some – but the Rice family attorney, Subodh Chandra, made it clear that’s not the case.
Under terms of Monday’s settlement, the estate of Tamir Rice will receive $5.5 million from the settlement.
“It is the Rice family’s honest hope that Tamir’s death will stimulate a movement for genuine change in our society and our nation’s policing”, he added.
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The two officers have been on restricted duty since the shooting and will remain so through an internal police review. Someone in the area saw him and called the police, telling the 911 dispatcher there was a “black” male pointing a gun at people, also noting the gun was “probably fake”.
