Cleveland police on Saturday shot down a 12-year-old boy playing with a BB gun, reportedly mistaking the child’s toy firearm for a real weapon.
Police received a call complaining about a boy, later identified as Tamir Rice, pointing a gun at people on a playground outside a local recreation center, the Plain Dealer reported.
Two officers arrived at the scene and ordered the child to put his hands up. When Rice’s hand moved for his BB gun, one of the officers fired at the child twice, hitting him once in the stomach, according to the Plain Dealer.
Rice was rushed to hospital and died from the gunshot wound early Sunday, the paper reported.
Police told local TV station WKYC that details about the toy gun and the boy’s age did not reach the two officers dispatched to the scene.
“The officer had no clue he was a 12-year-old,” said Jeff Follmer, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association. “He had no clue it was a toy gun, he was kind of shocked. He was concentrating more on the hands than on the age.”
Authorities also said the toy gun’s orange safety marker had been removed and investigators didn’t determine that it was a BB gun until it was recovered, according to the Plain Dealer.
The two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave while the police department conducts an investigation, the paper reported.
The victim:
http://imgick.cleveland.com/home/cleve-media/pgmain/img/plain-dealer/photo/2014/11/23/tamir-rice-15487b524171d82c.jpg
To the police he wasn’t a kid with a toy. All they saw was black hands on a gun. Never seems to stop…
We need to end police unions. All they do is subvert justice. They protect the bad cops and stop the good ones from doing anything about it.
We also need to absolutely reconstitute our law enforcement training so that they do not feel justified in responding to situations like this with deadly force. They should not be allowed to kill unless there is an ACTUAL threat, not a PERCEIVED threat like a 12 year old with a toy gun, or a guy walking in Walmart with a toy gun, or shooting someone in the back while they carry replica swords. Until such time as the officer is actually in danger they should not fe allowed to draw their weapon and shoot.
He was pointing the gun at other people in the park.
He was told by police to drop the gun.
He didn’t.
There are lots and lots of true stories about trigger-happy cops killing black Americans without good reason.
This is not one.
'“The officer had no clue he was a 12-year-old,” said Jeff Follmer, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association. “He had no clue it was a toy gun, he was kind of shocked. He was concentrating more on the hands than on the age."
Right; since a fucking cop can’t be expected to look at this face and determine if he’s a juvenile;
Too fucking right; despite getting a dispatch call about a man waving a gun around and threatening people, they find a 12 year old not threatening anyone, but still have to kill him moments after arriving.
The volume of people that immediately surge to exonerate the cops in these wholly unjustified murders is disturbing.