Because of their distrust in the criminal justice system, community leaders in Cleveland, Ohio, plan to circumvent prosecutors and ask a judge directly for murder charges against the police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

Rice was killed in November 2014 after police mistook his pellet gun for a real firearm and fatally shot him in a park. Since the shooting, the victim's relatives have filed a federal lawsuit against the city for excessive police force, negligence and failure by police to immediately provide first aid.

Surveillance of the shooting shows that Tamir was walking around and waving a pellet gun outside the Cudell Recreation Center. A man then called 911 to report someone pointing a gun that he believed as "probably fake" at other people. Although the caller stated several times that the weapon was likely 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 that 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 a hospital.

A group of activists, civil rights leaders and clergy in Cleveland plan to invoke a seldom-used state law and go directly to a judge to request murder charges against the officers. According to a media advisory, they will use citizens' affidavits for probable cause, which will be filed in the Cleveland Municipal Court.

"We are still waiting for the criminal justice system to enact justice in the name of Tamir Rice," said Rev. Jawanza Colvin, pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, in a statement, according to CNN. "It has been more than six months since his tragic death and, yet, the people still have no answers and no one has been held accountable."

The statement also said that the affidavits allow citizens to take "matters into their own hands utilizing the tools of democracy as an instrument of justice."

A public hearing will follow if their arrest warrant is approved, reports The New York Times.