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U.S. NEWSMonday 12 October 2015
Reports: Officer’s shooting of boy with pellet gun justified
MITCH STACY Timothy Loehmann will be Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty speaks during a news conference at police head-
Associated Press charged in the November quarters, in Cleveland. A white Cleveland police officer was justified in fatally shooting a black
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — death of Tamir Rice, who 12-year-old boy holding a pellet gun, according to two outside reviews conducted at the request
Prosecutors investigating was holding a pellet gun. of the prosecutor investigating the death.
the death of a 12-year-old The killing of Tamir has be-
black boy who was fatally come part of a national (Lisa DeJong/The Plain Dealer via AP)
shot by a white Cleveland outcry about minorities,
police officer say they are especially black boys and
just trying to be transparent men, dying during encoun-
in seeking and sharing out- ters with police, including
side reviews by experts on incidents in Ferguson, Mis-
the use of force. A lawyer souri, New York, and Balti-
for the boy’s family, how- more.
ever, says the outside re- A retired FBI agent and a
ports finding that the shoot- Denver prosecutor both
ing was justified show that found that the rookie pa-
prosecutors are avoiding trolman who shot Tamir
accountability. moments after pulling up
The reports were released beside him exercised a
Saturday night by the reasonable use of force
Cuyahoga County Prose- because he had reason
cutor’s Office, which asked to perceive the boy —
for the outside reviews as described in a call to the
it presents evidence to emergency dispatcher as
a grand jury that will ulti- a man waving and point-
mately determine whether ing a gun — as a serious
threat. to avoid providing that ac-
“We are not reaching any countability,” he said. He
conclusions from these re- added that the prosecu-
ports,” Prosecutor Timothy tor’s office didn’t provide
J. McGinty said in a state- his office or the Rice fam-
ment. He said the reports, ily with the details from the
which included a techni- reports. He also questioned
cal reconstruction by the the timing of the release,
Ohio State Highway Patrol, at 8 p.m. Saturday on the
were released in the inter- Columbus Day holiday
est of being “as public and weekend.
transparent as possible.” “To get so-called experts
Subodh Chandra, a lawyer to assist in the whitewash
for the Rice family, said the — when the world has the
release of the reports shows video of what happened
the prosecutor is avoiding — is all the more alarming,”
accountability, which is Chandra said. “Who will
what the family seeks. speak for Tamir before the
“It is now obvious that the grand jury? Not the pros-
prosecutor’s office has ecutor, apparently.”
been on a 12-month quest Both experts were provided
with surveillance video of
the shooting that showed
Loehmann firing at Tamir
within two seconds after
the police cruiser driven by
his partner pulled up next
to the boy. Police say the
officers were responding to
a call about a man with a
gun, but were not told the
caller said the gun could
be a fake and the man an
adolescent.
The report prepared by re-
tired FBI agent Kimberly A.
Crawford concluded that
Loehmann’s use of force
did not violate Tamir’s con-
stitutional rights, saying the
only facts relevant to such
a determination are those
the patrolman had at the
time he fired his weapon.q
