Update: More Protests After No Indictments in Tamir Rice's Killing
UPDATE 12/29/2015:
Hours after Cleveland officials announced that a grand jury decided there would be no charges for officers in the killing of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy, protests broke out in Cleveland and in New York City. Demonstrations are expected to continue today in both cities.
Samaria Rice, the mother of the victim of police violence, said that she is not going to let her son die in vain.
"I don’t want my child to have died for nothing and I refuse to let his legacy or his name be ignored," she said in a statement according to the Washington Post. "We will continue to fight for justice for him, and for all families who must live with the pain that we live with," she continued.
Supporters tweeted words of comfort to Ms. Rice using the hashtag, #ToMsRice.
On Tuesday night, protesters gathered in front of the recreation center where Rice was killed in Cleveland. Activists have called a 3 p.m. march in Downtown Cleveland today, according to WTOL.com. In New York City, demonstrators met at Washington Square Park and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, chanting, "I Am Tamir Rice," according to RT.com.
PREVIOUS 12/28/2015:
The family of another victim of police-involved violence has received unsettling news for the holidays.
A grand jury decided not to indict Cleveland officers in the killing of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy who was shot to death near the Cudell Recreation Center on Dec. 22, 2014. Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback were accused of using deadly force when they opened fire on the boy, who was holding a toy gun when he was approached by police.
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said Monday afternoon that the state failed to prove that the officers involved in his death had partaken in criminal activity. Rice was drawing his toy gun from his waist as the police encountered the boy, said McGinty.
"If we put ourselves in the victim's shoes, as prosecutors and detectives tried to do, it is likely that Tamir, whose size made him look much older, and who had been warned that his pellet gun might get him into trouble that day, either intended to hand it over to the officers or show them it wasn't a real gun," said McGinty.
"But there was no way for the officers to know that because they saw the events rapidly unfolding in front of them from a very different perspective," he continued.
Rice's mother said in 2014 that they wanted the officers to be convicted for killing the boy.
This story is developing.
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(Photo: AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
