Cleveland police have released video footage of 12-year-old Tamir Rice moments before he was fatally shot in a playground by an officer who mistook his pellet gun for a real firearm earlier this month.  

In the grainy black-and-white surveillance video, Rice is seen walking around and waving an "airsoft" pistol outside the Cudell Recreation Center. He then sat down on a park bench in the park's gazebo before a cop car pulls up near him. A rookie policeman then jumps out of the car and opens fire two seconds after arriving on the scene, notes BBC News.

The video was presented by police Tuesday afternoon during a news conference at the city's communications center, reports WKYC.

A man who was sitting in a nearby gazebo called 911 after he spotted the child pointing the gun at people. Although he stated several times that the weapon was probably a toy, the dispatcher did not transmit that information to the responding officers. As a result, the officers believed they were on a "gun run," said Deputy Chief Ed Tomba at the conference, according to NBC News.

"The guy keeps pulling it out," said the 911 caller during his call. "It's probably fake, but you know what, he's scaring the (expletive) out of (inaudible). ... He's sitting on the swing right now, but he keeps pulling it in and out of his pants and pointing it at people. Probably a juvenile, you know? ... I don't know if it's real or not, you know?"

Officers Timothy Loehmann, 26, and Frank Garmback, 46, said that the child was told three times to put his hands in the air while they were still in the car. However, the cops said that he reached for the gun in his waistband.

Loehmann, who had been on the jobs for about eight months, was about 10 feet away from him when he shot him.

Tomba said that neither Tamir nor the cops were to blame for the tragedy.

"This is not an effort to exonerate, it's not an effort to show the public that anybody did anything wrong. This is a tragic event," Tomba said.

A grand jury will decide whether either officer will be indicted in Rice's death.

After the video was released, the Rice family issued a statement saying "that this situation could have been avoided." The statement also says that, "The video shows one thing distinctly: the police officers reacted quickly. It is our hope that the City of Cleveland Division of Police and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office thoroughly examine the events outside of the Cudell Recreation Center on Nov. 22, 2014."

Watch a clip of the video below.