The mother of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer while carrying a toy gun in November, said that she is still in utter disbelief that her son was a victim of a police shooting.

"It's just so unreal," Samaria Rice said Wednesday while speaking at the playground where Rice was killed reports NBC News. "I just can't believe it. I'm still in shock, for real. I'm still in shock that this could be happening to me,"


On the day of the shooting, Nov. 22, 2014, Rice was recorded by a surveillance video walking around and waving a pellet gun outside the Cudell Recreation Center. A man then called 911 to report he saw someone pointing a gun at people. Although the caller stated several times 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," Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said, according to NBC News.

The surveillance also revealed rookie cop Timothy Loehmann fatally shot the boy two seconds after arriving on the scene. Rice was then left lying in the grass, bleeding to death, for four minutes until a detective and FBI agent arrived. Rice died the following day at hospital.

An autopsy report confirmed Rice suffered from a single gunshot to the left side of his abdomen. The bullet then traveled from front to back and lodged in his pelvis. The cause of death was a "gunshot wound of the torso with injuries of major vessel, intestines and pelvis," reads paperwork provided by the medical examiner's communications office, reports CNN.

The two officers involved in the shooting have since been placed on paid administrative leave.

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