Posted on 12/12/2014 10:59:03 AM PST by Citizen Zed
The death of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy fatally shot by police in November has been formally ruled a homicide, according to a county autopsy report released on Friday that found he was struck once in the abdomen.
Tamir Rice, who was black, was shot on Nov. 22 by a white police officer responding to a call of a suspect waving a handgun around in a Cleveland park. The weapon turned out to be a replica that typically fires plastic pellets. The sixth-grader died the next day.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's autopsy report said Rice sustained a single wound to the left side of his abdomen that traveled from front to back and lodged in his pelvis.
The shooting came at a time of heightened national scrutiny of police use of force and two days before a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Rice was shot less than two seconds after the police car pulled up beside him in the park, police have said. They also released a security video of Rice in the park before and during the shooting.
Rice was 5 feet 7 inches tall and 195 pounds, according to the autopsy report.
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.reuters.com ...
You would think they’d figure that one out by now.
I expect witness testimony to be all over the map.
Homicide is the official cause of death on state executions of death row inmates as well.
Crump and Company just struck gold again!
It won’t be ruled negligent, accidental, or intentional. The final ruling will be that it was “justified” because the officer feared he could suffer death or great bodily injury.
Thanks!
It was nice knowing you, Cleveland!
While this was obviously an accident, this is just going to become another excuse for a “shopping spree” when a grand jury rules that way.
The only people who COULDN'T tell it was a kid with a toy were the “highly trained” gubbermint workers in blue uniforms who showed up on the scene blasting away.
And we're supposed to trust our personal safety to these clown?
Of course its a homicide. The question is whether or not it was justifiable.
Literally homicide means man-slayer. Maybe we need new names for boy-slayer, girl-slayer, woman-slayer, tranny-slayer, ...
Cop showed up and according to reports of eye witnesses the cop got out of the car and shot him within two seconds. But then, did the kid point that gun at the cop? That’s the question the DA will bring up.
Apparently no one here has watched the video from the park CCTV. They came way too close to the kid if they thought he was dangerous. There was no interaction with the kid. He was assassinated.
“Loehmann, who was identified as having fired the shots that killed Rice, joined Cleveland’s police force in March 2014. Previously, he spent five months in 2012 with the police department in Independence, Ohio, about 13 miles south of Cleveland, four of which were spent in the police academy. According to his personnel records, released by the city of Independence in the aftermath of the shooting, his supervisors described him as an emotionally unstable recruit with a demonstrable “lack of maturity” and an “inability to perform basic functions as instructed”, specifically citing an incident that occurred during a weapons training exercise.
An internal memo sent by Independence Police Department’s deputy chief to the city’s human resources manager described Loehmann as visibly “distracted and weepy” during gun range training and exhibiting a dismal performance in handling his gun, calling the incident a “dangerous loss of composure”. The memo concluded, “Individually, these events would not be considered major situations, but when taken together they show a pattern of a lack of maturity, indiscretion and not following instructions, I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct these deficiencies.”
In that video, there were occasionally people walking by but the kid was by himself. The police arrive by driving through the park and stop within a few feet of the kid and shoot. This could go the race baiter’s way depending on what else comes out I guess.
I can't recall if the photo I saw was the actual "gun" that the kid had or if it was identical to it...or close to identical.If the photo I saw was even close to looking like the one the kid had I say "no culpability".
Of course this is a sad case.And it should be obvious that it bears *no* resemblance to Tayvon or Gentle Giant.Parents should warn their kids about stuff like this.
Killing an enemy in battle is homicide.
Justifiable homicide.
As is killing someone in self-defense.
This was just a TERRIBLE accident. I have no doubt in my mind that officer would take that shot back, if he could.
I gotta say though, with or without the orange plastic on them, I could EASILY spot a toy gun. Of course, I wasn’t there, and I have no idea what the lighting was like, or how the boy was acting with it.
Just tragic.
What’s a cop supposed to do? Wait to get shot?
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That just may be the answer. No shooting until at least one of them have been hit. No. That will not work. That would mean the cops out numbered the poor victim.
Damn. This is hard.
Maybe spot them two cops before they shoot back.
Exactly. It doesn’t mean anyone is guilty.
Its just tragic for everyone involved.
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