CLEVELAND (AP) — The police officer who fatally shot a 12-year-old boy
carrying a pellet gun fired within 1½ to 2 seconds of pulling up in his
cruiser, police said Wednesday. During those few moments, he ordered the
youngster three times to put up his hands, they said.
The city released a surveillance
video that shows the shooting of Tamir Rice, who was carrying an
airsoft gun that shoots non-lethal plastic pellets.
Much of the footage shows what appears to be a bored kid alone in a park on an unseasonably warm November afternoon. Tamir is seen pacing, occasionally extending his right arm with what appears to be a gun in his hand, talking on a cellphone and sitting at a picnic table with his head resting on his arms.
The gun wasn't real. It can be bought at sporting goods stores for less than $20. Tamir's was lacking the bright orange tip that is usually put on such weapons to indicate they're not real guns.
Tamir's family said it has seen the video of his shooting.
"It
is our belief that this situation could have been avoided and that
Tamir should still be here with us," the family said in a statement
released by its attorneys. "The video shows one thing distinctly: the
police officers reacted quickly."
The patrol officer who
shot Tamir was identified Wednesday as Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old
rookie who began his career in Cleveland on March 3. He previously spent
five months in 2012 with a department in suburban Independence, but
four of those months were in that city's police academy.
Loehmann's
partner that day was identified as Frank Garmback, 46. He has been with
the department since 2008. Both are on paid administrative leave
pending a decision by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office whether to
pursue any criminal charges.
The
video police showed Wednesday had no sound and was choppy, showing
about two frames per second. What is striking about it is the speed at
which the shooting occurred.
At one moment, Tamir is sitting at a
picnic table in a gazebo. He stands, and a police car zooms into the
frame from the right and stops on the grass, just a few feet from him.
The passenger door opens and Loehmann shoots Tamir before Garmback can
get out the driver's side door.It's unclear how far Tamir was from Loehmann when the officer shot him, but Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said it was less than 10 feet.
The low-resolution video
shows Tamir reaching to his waistband and then bending over after being
shot. His body is mostly obscured by the patrol car when he falls to the
ground. Garmback can be seen walking around the car and kicking what is
said to be the airsoft gun away from Tamir.
Tomba
told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that an FBI agent who was
working a bank robbery detail nearby arrived within a few minutes and
administered first aid to Tamir. Paramedics arrived three minutes later.
The boy died on Sunday at a Cleveland hospital.
Tomba said the city was releasing the video at the behest of Tamir's family.
"This
is not an effort to exonerate. It's not an effort to show the public
that anybody did anything wrong," Tomba said. "This is an obvious tragic
event where a young member of our community lost their life. We've got
two officers that were out there protecting the public that just had to,
you know, do something that nobody wants to do."
On
Saturday, a person had called 911 about a male pointing a gun at others
at the park. The caller told the 911 dispatcher that the gun was
"probably fake," then added, "I don't know if it's real or not."
Tomba
would not discuss statements the two officers gave after the shooting,
saying they were part of the investigation. Nor would he discuss details
of the radio conversation between the officers and a dispatcher except
to say they were apprised that they were on a "gun run."
The family thanked the city for releasing the video publicly and said it awaits the results of the police investigation.
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