(Cleveland) – A $6 million dollars settlement has been reached between the City of Cleveland and the Family of Tamir Rice.
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Cleveland city officials announced Monday they would give $6 million to the family of Tamir Rice, whose fatal shooting by police saw national protests in 2014, in a settlement that allows City Hall to avoid a wrongful-death lawsuit in court.
An order filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland on Monday says the city will pay out $3 million this year and $3 million the next.
Tamir was not given first aid until about four minutes later, when an Federal Bureau of Investigation agent trained as a paramedic arrived.
He died the next day.
The other two plaintiffs listed on the case, the boy’s mother Samaria Rice and T.R., will each receive $250,000.
In December 2015, we reported: Jury declines to indict White police officer who killed Tamir Rice. The settlement may not resolve all the issues surrounding the death of the 12 year old Cleveland boy, but may be a sign the City and the family are looking to move forward.
“Although it’s historic in financial terms, no amount of money can adequately compensate for the loss of a life”, said two of Tamir’s lawyers, Earl Ward and Jonathan Abady of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP in a statement.
A probate judge must still approve the settlement, according to the document. Officer Timothy Loehmann also claimed the pellet gun at the center of this controversy looked to real to simply dismiss as a toy.
The officers had responded to a 911 call in which a man drinking a beer and waiting for a bus outside Cudell Recreation Center reported that a man was waving a gun and pointing it at people. Rice, 12, was playing with a toy gun in a public park when he was shot by police responding to reports of an armed man acting “gangster.” .
Chandra said Samaria Rice would not have a comment and she and the rest of her family remain in mourning over Tamir’s death.
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He said: “The state criminal justice process cheated them out of true justice”. The caller had told the dispatcher he believed the person to be a juvenile and that the weapon was probably fake.
