Tamir Rice Cop Shooting Video: Autopsy Rules 12-Year-Old's Death Was a Homicide
The death of the 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot while carrying a toy gun last month by a Cleveland police officer has been ruled a homicide by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office.
According to the autopsy report, which was released on Friday, Tamir Rice suffered from a single gunshot to the left side of his abdomen on Nov. 22. The bullet then traveled from front to back and lodged in his pelvis, reports Reuters. He died the following day in a hospital.
The cause of death was a "gunshot wound of the torso with injuries of major vessel, intestines and pelvis," reads paperwork provided by Christopher Harris in the medical examiner's communications office, reports CNN.
The results indicates that the young African American boy was killed by the police officer, rather than dying accidentally, from natural causes or by suicide.
The two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is under investigation.
In the meantime, the boy's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers involved in the shooting and the city of Cleveland.
Filed last Friday, the eight-page complaint states that Officers Timothy Loehmann, 26, and his partner, Frank Garmback, used excessive and unnecessary force against Tamir, reports the Washington Post.
The suit alleges that the cops acted "unreasonably, negligently (and) recklessly" when Loehmann shot Tamir, NBC News reports.
"Had the defendant officers properly approached Tamir and properly investigated his possession of the replica gun they would undoubtedly have determined ... that the gun was fake and that the subject was a juvenile," the complaint said.
The lawsuit also alleges that the officers neglected to provide Tamir with medical attention for more than minutes "as he lay on the ground alive and bleeding."
The lawsuit also accuses the City of Cleveland of failing to properly train Loehmann, who was deemed emotionally unstable and unfit for duty in a previous police job.
Video footage of the incident shows that the victim was walking around and waving a pellet gun outside the Cudell Recreation Center. He eventually sat down on a park bench in the park's gazebo before a cop car pulls up near him. That's when rookie policeman Loehmann jumped out of the car and opened fire, two seconds after arriving on the scene. The boy then died a day later, after being transported to the hospital.
Cops were called to the playground after a man who was sitting in a nearby gazebo called 911 to report that he saw someone pointing a gun at people. Although the caller 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 looking for an adult black male on a "gun run," said Deputy Chief Ed Tomba at the conference, according to NBC News.
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