U.S. Cop Says He Thought 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice Was Holding Real Gun
A U.S. cop who shot dead 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2014 said he thought the boy was holding a real gun.
On Tuesday, prosecutors released Officer Timothy Loehmann's signed statement in which he said he told the boy to show his hands and the latter instead pulled out a gun. The U.S. cop and his partner Frank Garmback are facing possible charges for the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice in November 2014, according to Reuters.
Loehmann and Garmback were responding to a 911 call about a man wielding a gun in a park beside a recreation center. Mere seconds after coming out of the patrol car, Loehmann fired twice at Rice, who died of his injuries the next day.
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In his written statement, Loehmann said he thought Rice was holding a real gun. It was later found out that the 12-year-old was waving around a replica of an Airsoft gun that used plastic pellets as ammunition, News 24 reports.
Because Loehmann and Garmback are white and Rice was black, the boy's death stirred controversy over the use of police force against minorities.
Subodh Chandra, the Rice family's legal representative, pointed out that the officers' statement was not aligned with the scenes captured by a security video.
"Loehmann, for example insists that he observed things and took action that would have been physically impossible for any human being to do in the under two seconds it took him to shoot a 12-year-old child," Reuters quotes Chandra's statement.
In light of the events, Tamir Rice's family and attorneys want the two officers to be charged. They also are asking Prosecutor Timothy McGinty to let go of the case and have a special prosecutor take over, alleging biased and improper presentation of the case. However, the grand jury still has to decide on whether or not criminal charges will be filed against the police officers.
