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 ...
If you watch that video it is very difficult to excuse the police who were involved. The procedure they used would be appropriate in a hostage situation with the hostage in imminent mortal danger. That is NOT what happened.
Lots of interesting stuff coming out about this cop.
Right - the cop just shot.
Sorry. Link?
There seems to be plenty of blame to go around.
This boy was retarded in the literal sense and it cost him his life. Video of him pointing the gun at people in the park...
Never mind. Got it. Thanks.
Just watched the video. The kid sees the cop car approaching and walks toward it. The kid’s elbows appear bent so we can assume he’s holding the gun waist high though it’s too hard to see. The kid goes down immediately. The cops get out of the patrol car and have their guns trained on him. They walk around still keeping their guns aimed at him. It’s apparent they think the gun is real and he was threatening them.
Here’s an idea. Don’t walk toward cops with a toy gun without the orange tip. Don’t wave a toy gun at passersby. Don’t be stupid.
LOL....closer than inlaw....my 3rd cousin put his hand in his jacket and said he had a gun. Got 30 years for that. No gun involved. Could have been shot to death.
For what it’s worth, the person that called 911 stated at least twice that he thought the gun was a toy.
Check out the past history of this officer, (Especially his history relating previously around firearms), You might change your mind. This guy had no business being an LEO.
Twelve year old watching too many video games ... cop over reaction.
Yes, of course. Excellent point.
More than that went wrong.
Witnesses all over the map for sure. But some will know that the “white police officer (WAS) responding to a call of a suspect waving a handgun around in a Cleveland park”
The kid was an idiot. But it is sad that he died for his stupidity. And bravado.
Have you seen the video? Link
For the 7 minutes prior to the police arrival the kid is wandering around playing with the gun. There was nobody else in the park. Nobody being threatened. Then the police show up at about the 7:10 mark and at 7:13 the kid is shot and on the ground. Three seconds. Three seconds it took for the officer to shoot the kid. How do you issue a warning or try and defuse the situation or even determine if there is any threat in three freakin' seconds?
I think this cop had been fired from another force.
No, I hadn’t, I didn’t feel strongly one way or the other about the officer. I was just taken aback by the size of the boy and thought that he probably looked like an adult who had a real gun.
If it happened as you say then I hope that justice prevails and the officer is found guilty and given the maximum sentence.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.