He was freed around 6:30 p.m., county sheriff’s spokesman Mike Robison confirmed. During the proceedings that lasted just minutes, Judge Megan Shanahan read the two charges and set bond at $1 million, which drew cheers from members of DuBose’s family in court.
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“Ladies and gentlemen! This is a courtroom”, the judge said sharply.
University of Cincinnati campus police officer Ray Tensing told investigators that he opened fire out of fear for his life after DuBose tried to drive away and dragged the officer along with him.
Tensing’s body-camera video was released on Wednesday and showed the traffic stop and the shooting.
DuBose, he said, had almost run him down.
Tensing, 25, was fired soon after he was indicted. He also had earned a UC degree in criminal justice.
The case comes as the United States grapples with heightened racial tensions in the wake of a series of high-profile incidents of unarmed African Americans being killed by police in disputed circumstances.
Authorities so far have not focused on race in the death of DuBose.
“Sam would have never did to that police officer what that police officer did to Sam”, Ms Allen said.
Tensing, who was on administrative leave, has reportedly turned himself in.
At a Wednesday press conference, Deters called the shooting “senseless” and “the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make”. However, during the stop something went horribly wrong and Dubose was shot in the head by Tensing. In one of the videos, Lindenschmidt can be heard recounting Tensing’s version of events. But there is no indication on the video of how he ended up on the ground.
“This is, without question, a murder”, said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.
The officers haven’t responded to messages left at the school’s police department and at a possible home number for Lindenschmidt. No telephone listing for Kidd could be found.
Cincinnati was convulsed with riots in 2001 after police shot an unarmed 19-year-old black man who was wanted for traffic violations.
University spokeswoman Michele Ralston said it stands by its decision to terminate Tensing.
“You need to have a knowledge of how to interact with students”.
“It’s the most hard policing environment in the history of our nation”.
Tensing: “I think I’m okay, he was dragging me”. DuBose, obviously offended, holds the vehicle door shut.
The death DuBose is the latest in a string of controversial shootings where black people got killed by white cops that include Michael Brown in Ferguson, Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Also Friday, the county coroner released preliminary autopsy findings showing that DuBose died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
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Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said these are hard times for law enforcement agencies around the country, in light of the police shooting death in Ferguson, Missouri, and other shootings involving white officers and black victims.
