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US police officer who shot dead 12-year-old will not face criminal charges

A US police officer who shot dead 12-year-old Tamir Rice last November will not be indicted. A gr...
Newstalk
Newstalk

21.14 28 Dec 2015


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US police officer who shot dea...

US police officer who shot dead 12-year-old will not face criminal charges

Newstalk
Newstalk

21.14 28 Dec 2015


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A US police officer who shot dead 12-year-old Tamir Rice last November will not be indicted.

A grand jury ruled that Timothy Loehmann, who opened fire on Rice seconds after arriving at a park in Cleveland where the boy was playing with a toy gun, will face no charges. Nor will his partner Frank Garmback, Cuyahoga county prosecutor Timothy McGinty announced.

"The outcome will not cheer anyone, nor should it,” said McGinty. "Simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police."

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The family of Rice said in a statement they were "sad and disappointed" by the verdict.

"It has been clear for months now that Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty was abusing and manipulating the grand jury process to orchestrate a vote against indictment," it read.

According to the Guardian, they accused McGinty of hiring expert witnesses and allowing the officers to read prepared statements.

The prosecutor cited a picture of Rice taken just before the shooting as "indisputable [evidence] that Tamir was drawing his gun from his waist."

Though the officers claim they issued warnings to Rice to drop the weapon and raise his hands, the victim's family say this would have been impossible in the few seconds between the officers' arrival and the fatal shots.

Police were dispatched to the park following a 911 call in which the caller repeatedly stated that the gun was "probably fake," however this was not relayed by the dispatcher to Loehmann and Garmback.

Rice's killing follows other notable instances of black males being killed by white police officers int he US, including the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

 

 

 


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