Mother of boy shot by Cleveland police wants special prosecutor

12

Share This Story!Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

Mother of boy shot by Cleveland police wants special prosecutor

The family asked the county prosecutor to step down from the case.

Post to Facebook

Try Another

Audio CAPTCHA

Image CAPTCHA

Help

CancelSend

Sent!

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

USA Today Network WKYC-TV, Cleveland 9:16 p.m. EDT October 16, 2015

UP NEXT

03

The mother of Tamir Rice is asking the prosecutor to step down from her son's case 11 months after the 12-year-old was shot and killed by police in Cleveland. WKYC

CLEVELAND — The mother of a Cleveland boy who was holding a pellet gun when he was shot and killed by police last year is calling for a special prosecutor to take over the investigation of the case.

Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, spoke at a news conference Friday, asking Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty to step down from her son's case.

"Do you all think that the killing of my child was constitutionally justified?" she asked. "I am praying the public continues to ask questions and seeks the truth."

An attorney for the Rice family wrote a letter to McGinty, listing reasons why they want a special prosecutor.

Among them is the delay in presenting the case to a grand jury.

At the Friday news conference, representatives also discussed two recent expert reports that the prosecutor's office released last week in which the officers' actions were declared reasonable. They condemned McGinty for releasing reports they say were written by use-of-force experts with a decidedly pro-police bias.

“If the prosecutor is truly interested in pursuing this case impartially, why did his office choose these so-called experts,” Rice family attorney Jonathan Abady said on the steps of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center.

Tamir Rice, 12, was shot and killed on Nov. 22 by Cleveland police Officer Timothy Loehmann outside of a recreation center.

Loehmann and Officer Frank Garmback went to the recreation center after a man drinking a beer outside called 911 to report that a man was waving a gun and pointing it at people. The officers weren’t told by a dispatcher that the caller said the man might be a kid and the gun might not be real.

A surveillance video shows a police cruiser driven by Garmback skidding to a stop near Tamir and then Loehmann shooting the boy within two seconds.

Police officials have said Loehmann ordered Tamir three times to put up his hands before he shot him. A former police union official said the officers had no way of knowing Tamir was carrying an airsoft gun that only looked like a real firearm.

The grainy, choppy surveillance video has no sound that can verify Loehmann’s contention he repeatedly told Tamir to raise his hands as the cruiser sped toward him with the passenger door open. And it doesn’t provide a clear picture about where the pellet gun was when Tamir was shot, whether it was in the waistband of his pants or whether he had removed it.

McGinty and his spokesman said they welcome criticism about the reports and emphasized the reports don’t represent any conclusions and aren’t indicative of the recommendation prosecutors will make to the grand jury that will decide whether to indict Loehmann and Garmback.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1LyExqt

0) { %> 0) { %> 0) { %>Mother of boy shot by Cleveland police wants special prosecutor 12 Share This Story!

Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

Mother of boy shot by Cleveland police wants special prosecutor

The family asked the county prosecutor to step down from the case.

Post to Facebook

CancelSend

USA Today Network WKYC-TV, Cleveland 9:16 p.m. EDT October 16, 2015

CLEVELAND — The mother of a Cleveland boy who was holding a pellet gun when he was shot and killed by police last year is calling for a special prosecutor to take over the investigation of the case.

Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, spoke at a news conference Friday, asking Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty to step down from her son's case.

"Do you all think that the killing of my child was constitutionally justified?" she asked. "I am praying the public continues to ask questions and seeks the truth."

An attorney for the Rice family wrote a letter to McGinty, listing reasons why they want a special prosecutor.

Among them is the delay in presenting the case to a grand jury.

At the Friday news conference, representatives also discussed two recent expert reports that the prosecutor's office released last week in which the officers' actions were declared reasonable. They condemned McGinty for releasing reports they say were written by use-of-force experts with a decidedly pro-police bias.

“If the prosecutor is truly interested in pursuing this case impartially, why did his office choose these so-called experts,” Rice family attorney Jonathan Abady said on the steps of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center.

Tamir Rice, 12, was shot and killed on Nov. 22 by Cleveland police Officer Timothy Loehmann outside of a recreation center.

Loehmann and Officer Frank Garmback went to the recreation center after a man drinking a beer outside called 911 to report that a man was waving a gun and pointing it at people. The officers weren’t told by a dispatcher that the caller said the man might be a kid and the gun might not be real.

A surveillance video shows a police cruiser driven by Garmback skidding to a stop near Tamir and then Loehmann shooting the boy within two seconds.

Police officials have said Loehmann ordered Tamir three times to put up his hands before he shot him. A former police union official said the officers had no way of knowing Tamir was carrying an airsoft gun that only looked like a real firearm.

The grainy, choppy surveillance video has no sound that can verify Loehmann’s contention he repeatedly told Tamir to raise his hands as the cruiser sped toward him with the passenger door open. And it doesn’t provide a clear picture about where the pellet gun was when Tamir was shot, whether it was in the waistband of his pants or whether he had removed it.

McGinty and his spokesman said they welcome criticism about the reports and emphasized the reports don’t represent any conclusions and aren’t indicative of the recommendation prosecutors will make to the grand jury that will decide whether to indict Loehmann and Garmback.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1LyExqt

style="position: relative; left: -35%;" />

0) { %> 0) { %> 0) { %>

Read more http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~/118123703/0/usatoday-newstopstories~Mother-of-boy-shot-by-Cleveland-police-wants-special-prosecutor/