Justice Dept. Will Not Pursue Charges Against Officers In Tamir Rice Shooting
The U.S. Justice Department will not be pursuing charges against the officers in the shooting death of 12-year old Tamir Rice.
The Justice Department announced that they found no sufficient evidence to support criminal charges surrounding the 2014 shooting in an Ohio parked.
Rice was shot and killed outside of a recreation center by then-Cleveland police Officer Timothy Loehmann, who authorities said mistook a black, toy airsoft pistol for a real firearm.
Loehmann shot Rice after a witness called 911 to report that someone was brandishing a gun in a park. The caller noted that the person was “probably a juvenile” and that the gun was “probably fake,” records show.
The shooting amplified the Black Lives Matter movement, and once again showed officers using excessive force.
Loehmann, who was in field training, arrived at the scene in a patrol car driven by Officer Frank Garmback.
“In order to establish a federal civil rights violation, the government would have to prove that Officer Loehmann’s actions were unreasonable under the circumstances, and that his actions were willful,” federal attorneys said. ” … an officer is permitted to use deadly force where he reasonably believes that the suspect posed an imminent threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others. “
The attorney for Tamir Rice’s family, Jonathan Abady, told CNN that he has spoken with Rice’s mother, Samaria, and she is beside herself with grief and disappointment.
“This case involves the totally unjustified shooting of a 12-year-old child,” he said. “This is part of a problem that we’ve been living with as a society for as long as anyone can remember, that is the unjustified excessive use of force by police officers against people of color.
“And the idea that people would not be held accountable for this is really more than upsetting.”
Loehmann was fired in May 2017, not for the shooting, but because investigators found he wasn’t truthful about his employment history when he applied for the job, officials said.
Garmback was suspended for 10 days because he violated tactical rules relating to how he drove up to the site where Rice was shot that day.
