CLEVELAND- Tamir Rice’s family says they are “saddened and disappointed, but not surprised” by the grand jury’s decision to not bring charges against the two officers in the shooting death of the 12-year-old.
Advertisement
Christmas storm woes continue as tornado, flooding hit Alabama
Another home had a partially torn roof, while another was damaged so badly that only one exterior wall survived the tornado. In far West Texas, up to four inches of snow fell overnight in the Alpine area, with foot-deep drifts reported.
Mr McGinty said that despite the “perfect storm of human error… the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police”.
‘Affluenza’ teen Ethan Couch, mother detained in Mexico
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said Monday night it was aware of the CNN report, but “cannot confirm” Couch’s apprehension. CNN is reporting tonight that Mexican authorities arrested both of them near Puerto Vallarta, a popular beach resort area.
More than a year after 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed on a Cleveland playground, a grand jury has said it will not indict Rice’s shooter.
Led by Gillislee, Bills ground out 16-6 win over Cowboys
Without that play, the Bills punt and then pray. “It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t ideal by any means”, Taylor said. That was Buffalo’s last playoff year, but Flutie had the NFL’s No. 1 defense, not No. 21.
Tamir, who was black, was carrying a replica gun outside a recreation center when someone called 911. Although a caller said the gun was “probably fake”, that information was not passed along to Loehmann and Garmback. Mr Loehmann claimed he shot because Tamir pulled the pellet gun from his waistband, “had been threatening others with the weapon and had not obeyed our command to show us his hands”.
Tim McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, announced the decision on Monday, saying the two officers who were involved were reasonable in their belief that Rice had a weapon.
Rice’s family has filed a wrongful death suit against the officers involved and the city of Cleveland and has requested that the federal government investigate whether Rice’s death involved any federal crimes. The city also reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice this year to institute numerous reforms, including an overhaul of the police department’s use-of-force policies.
Incidents of fatal police shootings of largely minority suspects stoked racial tensions across the nation, prompting widespread protests from organizers with the Black Lives Matter movement.
In a statement released Monday evening, Tamir’s family accused the prosecutor’s office of mishandling the case.
In May of this year it was discovered that Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, both present at the scene, had yet to be questioned about the incident despite the fact that the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office had ruled Rice’s death a homicide in December 2014. The grand jury making the decision has been meeting since mid-October.
When the prosecutor uses the grand jury as a body to determine probable cause for charging and indicting, it is problematic in two ways: (1) It gives police officers the opportunity to provide exculpatory (exonerating) testimony without cross examination, as took place in the Michael Brown case in Ferguson and the Eric Garner case in Staten Island.
McGinty insisted that “steps have been taken” to ensure that this “tragic event” does not happen again, including outfitting all Cleveland police officers with body cameras in order to help “improve public confidence and improve performance”.
“This case screamed out for a special prosecutor”, she said.
Later, it was revealed that before joining the Cleveland Police Department, Loehmann had quit the police force in the suburb of Independence after an “emotional meltdown” at the gun range. Loehmann had a “dismal” handgun performance, broke down in tears at the gun range and was emotionally immature, according to documents.
Advertisement
He said the he “appreciated the honest emotion and concern of all citizens” but asked the communituy to “respect the process”.
