A fake handgun taken from 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was fatally shot by Cleveland police, is displayed after a news conference in Cleveland last year.
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The gun on the top right is the same as the toy replica Colt 1911 which Tamir Rice pulled from his waistband and pointed at officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback in November of 2014. The size of those protests likely was reduced by a cold and steady rain that fell throughout the day.
In a statement released Monday, Rice’s family said the prosecutor’s office “deliberately sabotaged the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers’ defense attorney”. But he urged the community not to “give in to anger and frustration and let it divide us”.
“People are upset, and legitimately and rightfully so”, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said Tuesday.
Protesters are expected to gather outside Cleveland’s downtown justice center Tuesday afternoon.
About 100 protesters marched through the streets of Cleveland Tuesday, calling for Prosecutor Timothy McGinty’s resignation and Timothy Loehmann’s badge.
Cleveland resident Art Blakey held a sign that read, “Indict, Convict, Send Killer Cops to Jail!” This is the way things were always going to turn out. The officers say they believed the gun was real when they arrived on scene.
Maloney said Garmback was relieved by the grand jury’s decision, which Tamir’s family has condemned.
In detailing the decision not to bring charges, McGinty said police radio personnel contributed to the tragedy by failing to pass along the “all-important fact” that the 911 caller said the gunman was probably a youngster and the gun probably wasn’t real.
McGinty claimed the police shooting should be blamed on a “perfect storm of human error”.
Boston police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. There was a grand jury, in which-instead of deciding if there was enough evidence to indict-McGinty did the opposite and began a campaign of publicly citing reasons to ease the pressure after the decision to not indict. “The outcome will not cheer anyone, nor should it”, McGinty said. It accused the prosecutor of “abusing and manipulating the grand jury process to orchestrate a vote against indictment”.
Cleveland’s reputation has suffered because of some well-publicized police shootings, including the killings of two unarmed black people in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire at the end of a 2012 auto chase.
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“If this had gone to trial and both officers were found not guilty, I would have been content with that”.
