Tamir Rice Cop Shooting: Judge Finds Probable Cause to Proscute Cops who Killed 12-Year-Old Cleveland Boy
An Ohio judge announced on Thursday that he found probable cause to charge the two police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year.
In a 10-page ruling, Municipal Court Judge Ronald B. Adrine stated that there is probable cause to prosecute Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann with murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and dereliction of duty for firing the fatal shot. He also found probable cause to charge Loehmann's partner, Officer Frank Garmback, with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty.
The judge, however, added that he could not issue an order for their arrest without a complaint being filed by a prosecutor.
"This court determines that complaints should be filed by the prosecutor of the City of Cleveland and/or the Cuyahoga County prosecutor," Judge Adrine wrote, according to The New York Times.
In response, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty dismissed the judge's recommendation and reaffirmed that a grand jury will decide whether or not the officers should be charged.
"This case, as with all other fatal use of deadly force cases involving law enforcement officers, will go to the grand jury," McGinty said in a statement, according to The Guardian. "That has been the policy of this office since I was elected. Ultimately, the grand jury decides whether police officers are charged or not charged."
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.
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