Two outside experts have concluded that the Cleveland police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice was “reasonable”.
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McGinty said in a statement released Saturday that the reports are the first of several his office has commissioned as he prepares to present the case to the grand jury, which ultimately will decide whether either of the officers face criminal charges.
“However…I conclude that Officer Loehmann’s belief that Rice posed a threat of serious physical harm or death was objectively reasonable as was his response to that perceived threat”, the Sims report stated. Police were responding to a 911 caller who had reported that Rice was waving a gun that was “probably fake”.
A trio of independent reports released by Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty favor a white police officer’s fateful decision to open fire on the toy gun-toting child.
“Any presentation to a grand jury – without the prosecutor advocating for Tamir as prosecutors do for crime victims every day – is a charade”, Subodh Chandra, an attorney for the Rice family, said in a statement.
The reports were released ahead of an expected decision by a grand jury on whether Loehmann will be charged in the fatal shooting. Not the prosecutor, apparently.
“The after-acquired information – that the individual was 12 years old, and the weapon in question was an “airsoft gun”- is not relevant to a constitutional review of Officer Loehmann’s actions”, she writes in one of the other reports posted Saturday.
Surveillance video shows Rice shot dead by Loehmann just seconds after a police vehicle pulled up beside him on a playground in Cleveland.
“‘It is my conclusion that Officer Loehmann’s use of deadly force falls within the realm of reasonableness under the dictates of the Fourth Amendment, ‘ Crawford wrote, though she noted she was not issuing an opinion as to whether Loehmann violated Ohio law or department policy”.
Sims writes that in the video it appears the boy’s hands moved toward his waistband but it is unclear if he reached for the gun. “Reasonable jurors could find that conduct unreasonable”. “They were responding to a situation fraught with the potential for violence to citizens”. “But they will never get the chance because the prosecutor is working diligently to ensure that there is no indictment and no accountability”.
Rice was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer November 22, 2014 in the playground area of the Cudell Recreation Center.
Tamir’s death sparked protests in Cleveland and was held up as an example of what a few feel are heavy-handed tactics used by police against minorities.
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That agreement was in the works before Tamir was killed.
