Sköt ihjäl Tamir Rice – nu får polismannen sparken
Den polisman som sköt ihjäl 12-årige Tamir Rice i Cleveland 2014 har fått sparken, rapporterar amerikanska medier. Hans kollega som körde polisbilen stängs av i tio dagar.
Händelsen inträffade när poliserna åkte på ett larm om att Rice befann sig i en park i centrala Cleveland med ett vapen. Inringaren påpekade flera gånger i larmsamtalet att vapnet troligen inte var skarpt – information som inte nådde polismännen. Rice sträckte sig efter vapnet när poliserna anlände vilket ledde till att han sköts med flera skott.
Rices död ledde till kraftiga protester över hela landet som fick ytterligare bränsle när det kom fram att poliserna inte gett honom första hjälpen.
bakgrund
Tamir Rices död
Wikipedia (en)
The shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy (June 25, 2002 – November 23, 2014), occurred on November 22, 2014, in Cleveland, Ohio. Two police officers, 26-year-old Timothy Loehmann and 46-year-old Frank Garmback, responded after receiving a police dispatch call "of a male black sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people" in a city park. A caller reported that a male was pointing "a pistol" at random people in the Cudell Recreation Center. At the beginning of the call and again in the middle he says of the pistol "it's probably fake". Toward the end of the two-minute call, the caller stated "he is probably a juvenile". However, this information was not relayed to Loehmann or Garmback on the initial dispatch. The officers reported that upon their arrival, Rice reached towards a gun in his waistband. The officer's claim was later confirmed with enhanced video evidence. Within two seconds of arriving on the scene, Loehmann fired two shots, without yelling at Rice to drop the gun, in response to the weapon being drawn by Rice, hitting Rice once in the torso. He died on the following day.
Rice's gun was later found to be an Airsoft replica that lacked the orange safety feature marking it as a replica and not a true firearm. The video evidence showed that Rice appears to violate the conditions found within section D (a misdemeanor) of Cleveland City Ordinance § 627.19 Facsimile Firearms] (previously known as C.C.O. 627.23 Facsimile Firearms). (d) No person shall draw, exhibit or brandish a replica or facsimile of a firearm or simulate a firearm in the presence of a law enforcement officer, fire fighter, emergency medical technician or paramedic engaged in the performance of his or her duties, when the person committing such brandishing knows or has reason to know that such law enforcement officer, fire fighter, emergency medical technician or paramedic is engaged in the performance of his or her duties.
A surveillance video of the shooting was released by police four days later, on November 26. On June 3, 2015, the County Sheriff's Office released a statement in which they declared their investigation to be completed and that they had turned their findings over to the county prosecutor. Several months later, the prosecution presented evidence to a grand jury, which declined to indict primarily on the basis that Rice was drawing what appears to be an actual firearm from his waist as the police arrived. A lawsuit brought against the city of Cleveland by Rice's family was subsequently settled for $6 million in an effort to reduce taxpayer liabilities.
In the aftermath of the shooting, it was reported that Loehmann, in his previous job as a police officer in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, had been deemed an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for duty. The incident received national and international coverage, in part due to the time of its occurrence, coming shortly after the police shootings of several other black males.
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