Tensing was indicted on Wednesday on murder and voluntary manslaughter charges in the 19 July death of Samuel DuBose, 43, who was shot in the head during a traffic stop.
Advertisement
A local judge set bail at $1 million (£650,000) during at a brief hearing that was broadcast on live television.
Tensing said that at the time he feared for his life because he thought Dubose was getting ready to run over him, whereupon he shot him, killing him instantly.
When asked about Tensing’s reaction to the murder indictment, Mathews says he was shocked. But city officials who viewed video footage released from Tensing’s body camera said the traffic stop should not have led to a shooting.
Following the death of Samuel DuBose after what should have been an innocuous traffic stop, both Kidd and Weibel corroborated Officer Tensing’s claims that he had been “dragged” by DuBose’s auto, which is what prompted him to shoot the unarmed 43-year old.
NBC’s headline announced that the officer, Ray Tensing, had been indicted for murder in Dubose’s death. Dubose died in his auto.
The video – and the indictment – are part of a series of violent confrontations between white police and black civilians, including Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Michael Brown in Ferguson.
In speaking to CNN, Tensing’s lawyer Stew Matthews seemed to indicate that his client’s not guilty plea will be due to the belief he was acting in self-defense.
University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing.
“This office has probably reviewed upwards of hundreds of police shootings, and this is the first time that we’ve thought this is without question a murder”. The prosecutor also stated that Tensing should have allowed Dubose to drive away, seeing as he already had his license plate number.
But the body camera footage shows something different, according to Deters. He couldn’t believe it. He was doing his job as a police officer.
Mathews said a video from the body camera of a police officer who arrived right after the shooting shows Tensing lying in the street after he had gotten free of the auto, but that video hasn’t been released by authorities. “It’s so senseless”, Hamilton County Joe Deters lamented. Kidd is heard saying: “Yeah, I saw that”.
Meanwhile two other University of Cincinnati police officers who responding to the shooting have been placed on administrative leave.
Terina Allen, the victim’s sister, said that the video evidence from Tensing proved that DuBose was a peaceful man. We speak to Iris Roley, longtime police accountability activist with the Cincinnati Black United Front.
Deters said Tensing fell backwards after shooting Dubose in the head.
Advertisement
So far this year, more than 550 people have been shot and killed by police, according to a Washington Post database tracking such shootings this year.
