No charges for Cleveland police officers in shooting death of Tamir Rice

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No charges for Cleveland police officers in shooting death of Tamir Rice
BY BNO NEWS

CLEVELAND: -- An Ohio grand jury has declined to bring criminal charges against two Cleveland police officers in the 2014 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty announced on Monday.

McGinty said the grand jury declined to charge officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback in connection with Tamir’s death, which was also the recommendation of the prosecutor’s office. “Simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunication by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police,” he said.

12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Loehmann on November 22, 2014, after he and a colleague responded to a call of a man sitting in a city park and pointing a gun at people. Information from a caller who said that the gun was “probably fake” was not relayed to the officers, who stopped their vehicle near Rice, after which Loehmann immediately opened fire when Tamir reached towards his waistband.

“If we put ourselves in the victim’s shoes, as prosecutors and detectives try to do, it is likely that Tamir, whose size made him look much older, and who had been warned that his pellet gun might get him into trouble that day, either intended to hand it over to the officers, or show them that it wasn’t a real gun. But there was no way for the officers to know that, because they saw the events rapidly unfolding in front of them from a very different perspective,” McGinty explained.

Full story: http://www.streetwisejournal.com/no-charges-for-cleveland-police-officers-in-shooting-death-of-tamir-rice/


-- StreetWiseJournal 2015-12-30

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2 Cleveland officers still in jeopardy over Tamir Rice case
By MARK GILLISPIE and JOHN SEEWER

CLEVELAND (AP) — Despite the grand jury decision not to charge a white patrolman in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, the case is far from over for the city of Cleveland, the officers involved in the shooting, or the black boy's grief-stricken family.

The family is suing the city, federal prosecutors are looking into possible civil rights charges against Timothy Loehmann and his partner, and the two officers face a departmental investigation that could result in disciplinary action, including firing.

Tamir was carrying what turned out to be a pellet gun when Loehmann shot and killed the boy within two seconds of emerging from his police cruiser in November 2014. On Monday, prosecutors said a grand jury concluded that Loehmann reasonably believed that it was a real gun and that his life was in danger.

The case has stirred racial tensions and added Cleveland to the list of U.S. cities — Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore; North Charleston, South Carolina; and New York City, among them — where blacks have died in the past two years at the hands of police.


On Tuesday, about 50 people marched peacefully in front of the county courthouse in downtown Cleveland to protest the grand jury decision. Demonstrators chanted, "Justice for Tamir!"

In addition to the potential legal and financial consequences is the human cost. Tamir's mother, Samaria, must live without her baby boy, a happy-go-lucky kid in a man-sized body. Loehmann, Garmback and other officers were surprised to learn after the shooting that Tamir was just 12.

Family attorney Subodh Chandra said Samaria Rice wept for much of the day after Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty's announcement that Loehmann and Garmback wouldn't be charged.

"She doesn't know what she can do," Chandra said. "And there are no answers because the prosecutors have foreclosed the possibility of criminal accountability."

Loehmann's attorney said the officer bears a heavy burden, too.

"Everybody has this vision of a cold, callous person who shot a 12-year-old," Henry Hilow said. "Both officers have to live with this the rest of their lives. That memory will never go away."

While the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland has said it will review the circumstances of the shooting, the legal hurdles to prosecuting a civil rights case are considered especially high.

A law professor as well as a prominent Cleveland civil rights attorney said Tuesday that from both a legal and public relations standpoint, Cleveland has considerable exposure from the federal lawsuit filed by Tamir's family.

Cleveland's reputation has suffered because of some well-publicized police shootings, including the killings of two unarmed black people in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire at the end of a 2012 car chase.

The city settled a lawsuit brought by the victims' families for a total of $3 million in 2014, months before a criminal case involving one of the officers went to trial. A judge ultimately acquitted the patrolman of manslaughter.

Attorney Terry Gilbert represented the family of one of the victims and earlier this year won a $5.5 million verdict against the city over the killing of a man by an off-duty Cleveland officer. The Rice family has a "good case," Gilbert said.

The city is vulnerable because the case will examine not just the shooting but the circumstances surrounding it, Gilbert said, referring to the way Garmback stopped the cruiser so close to Tamir while responding to a 911 call about someone waving a gun.

"A reasonable officer would position themselves where they would have some space between themselves and the potential threat where they could have some time and cover," Gilbert said.

Case Western Reserve University law professor Lewis Katz said the city would be vulnerable at trial because of the failure of the 911 call taker to pass on key information — namely, that the caller said the gunman was probably a juvenile and the gun probably wasn't real.

Katz said the city officials might want to cut their losses and settle with the Rice family.

"They run a big risk if they don't," Katz said.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-12-30

[NeverSure]

One big problem is that these guns look real. I would certainly feel a threat. This is Tamir's gun. What's a 12 year old doing brandishing something like this? Apparently Tamir was also "man sized" and didn't look like a kid.

Edited December 30, 2015 by NeverSure

[NeverSure]

When I was a kid any toy gun looked like a toy. Squirt guns come to mind and they were translucent plastic in very bright, almost fluorescent colors. No one would mistake them for a real gun. Kids shouldn't be allowed to have a toy that looks real. Am I supposed to wait until he shoots to find out if it's real?