COPS SHOOT 12 YEAR OLD BLACK

OK, HERE IS ANOTHER ONE:


Cops release video of officer fatally shooting 12-year-old
By Associated PressNovember 27, 2014 | 8:58am

CLEVELAND — 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.