Cleveland police have released footage of an officer fatally shooting 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a park, in a press conference on Wednesday.
On Sunday, police shot down Rice after two officers reportedly confused the child’s airsoft gun for a lethal weapon. Rice was rushed to the hospital and later died of his injuries.
The video initially shows the boy walking back and forth underneath a park gazebo. Eventually a police car pulls up, and within seconds, Rice falls to the ground, before the officer in the driver’s seat has even stepped out of the vehicle.
Rice’s parents, Samaria Rice and Leonard Warner, requested the footage be made public in a letter to Mayor Frank Jackson and the Cleveland Police Department.
Watch the video below, via WKYC (warning, graphic):
You give a “warning, graphic” disclaimer, than autoplay anyways?
Good work, TPM.
Wow. The officer in the passenger seat wasn’t more than 8 feet from that kid. At that distance, it should have been abundantly clear that this was a kid with an air rifle. It also looks like the cop spent exactly zero time to demand that he drop the gun. Car comes to a stop, kid crumples to the ground two seconds later.
The cops said they yelled a few times to drop the gun, they must talk real fast because I did not see them having the time to say one word.
Also, the 911 call says he was waving the gun and pointing it at other kids. While likely true at the time, at this point he seems to be far away from anyone else, so even if the gun is real he is not a danger to others.
As to the gun, this thing is a spot on match, so I don’t blame the cops for not recognizing it was a fake. I blame them for a reaction that was way too quick when others were not in danger.
Dispatch also has some blame, it should have been relayed that the 911 caller said it was a kid and the gun might be fake. That might have made the police approach a little slower and be more cautious. But they still screwed up. Well, at least the guy who took the shot. The other cop might have been saying to his partner “what the hell did you just do you moron?”.
Why would they drive on the grass and sidewalk to get that close to a perp they thought had a deadly weapon and was aiming it at civilians?
How is speeding as close to the suspect the right procedure for dealing with a potential gun threat?
Why is the boy shot twice and on the ground before both cops have fully exited the vehicle?
Is this Fallujah or Ohio?
I know nothing at all about police procedure, so this is an honest question:
If officers are responding to a call about someone brandishing a gun, do they typically drive a car right up to the suspect like that?