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No charges in Cleveland police shooting of 12-year-old boy
On Monday the prosecutor announced the jury had declined to indict officers who shot the 12-year-old to death in November 2014 as the boy was drawing a gun from his waist. McGinty said the officers believed Tamir’s gun was real and noted that the orange tip was missing from Tamir’s gun, which would have been a clear indication that the gun was fake.
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According to ABC News, the prosecutor told journalists that Loehmann, an officer-in-training, had reason to feel threatened as Tamir reached for his gun when the police auto was approaching.
“Simply put, given this ideal storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police”, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty told reporters. But “the dispatcher didn’t relay the caller’s doubts”, and “within seconds Officer Timothy Loehmann stepped out of the passenger side and fired two shots, striking Tamir once in the abdomen”. The officer who responded to the scene leapt from his cruiser, drew his weapon and shot Rice twice without a warning or inquiry.
Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Meyer said it was “extremely difficult” to tell the difference between the fake gun and a real one.
A memorial is growing at the site of the Tamir Rice shooting following the grand jury’s decision to not criminally charge the officers involved.
Although black men make up only 6 percent of the USA population, they account for 40 percent, or 36, of the unarmed people shot to death by police in 2015. The judge, Ronald B. Adrine, “found that sufficient cause exists to charge Loehmann with murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide, and dereliction of duty”.
“This case has been botched from its inception by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor”, Michael Nelson Sr., president-elect of the Cleveland NAACP, said in a statement.
“This is ridiculous”, Terri Tolefree said of the grand jury decision.
He said the 911 call taker was responsible for “substantial” errors including not relaying information from the caller to the officers that the suspect was probably a juvenile and the gun may not have been real.
Next to the gazebo in the Cudell neighborhood where Tamir Rice was shot, a few dozen marchers including Kevin Latimer chanted in the cold drizzle on their way to the Justice Center downtown. However, demonstrators began to gather in the late afternoon at the park where Tamir Rice was killed. Cuyahoga County District Attorney Tim McGinty has already drawn sharp criticism from Rice’s family and on social media for his handling of the case.
The grand jury for weeks had been hearing testimony on the shooting of Rice, which took place within seconds after police arrived at a park next to a Cleveland recreation centre in response to reports of a suspect with a gun. “The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been monitoring the investigation that has been conducting regarding the death of Tamir Rice on November 22, 2014”, a statement said. “We will continue to support Samaria Rice as we call for a special national prosecutor to monitor such cases and we stand by the Rice family as they are dealt this blow during the holidays”.
The Cleveland Police Department plans to put dashboard cameras in every auto, and all patrol officers have been equipped with bodycams since September.
“Although the grand jury decision may be the right one, we will never know because the prosecutor refused to step down and allow an independent review”, Fudge wrote.
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The dread that blanketed McGinty’s face seemed to be tinged with a faint hope that all hell, in the form of another Ferguson, wouldn’t break out on the streets of Cleveland in the wake of the jury’s decision.