Cleveland police on Wednesday released a video of the shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy killed by cops on Saturday afternoon while in possession of a toy gun.
Rice’s death has sparked protests, and the release of the video came at a carefully worded press conference that also announced the names of the officers involved: Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.
The video shows that less than two seconds transpired between the arrival of the cruiser, which drives right up to the boy, and the fatal shooting of Rice. The video has no sound, but police say Loehmann shouted three commands from the car for Rice to show his hands. Loehmann exits the cruiser while it is still moving and, shortly thereafter, shoots Rice.
Here’s another look:
Before the cops’ arrival, the video shows Rice wielding his toy weapon, a realistic-looking airsoft pistol, while walking up down the sidewalk, waving it and pointing it. Cops responded to a 911 caller, who is also seen on the tape. The caller, who is heard on dispatch recordings that were also released, describes a male waving and pointing a gun but says it is “probably fake.” Listen to that 911 call below:
The release of the video comes after this public request from Rice’s parents, Samaria Rice and Leonard Warner:
We respectfully request that Mayor Frank Jackson and the City of Cleveland Division of Police release the complete video of the incident involving our son, Tamir E. Rice, and two unnamed patrol officers on Nov. 22, 2014.
The news of Tamir’s death has devastated our family. Tamir was a bright young man who had his whole life ahead of him. This is a tragedy in our eyes.
Tamir Rice.
He was a loving brother. He was a grandson. He was a nephew and cousin. His favorite sport was basketball. Tamir often visited the Cudell Recreation Center to play with friends. Most of all, he enjoyed being around people. Everyone loved him.
The holiday season begins this week. Instead of the love, fellowship and joy the season brings to many families, we will be mourning the loss of Tamir. We looked forward to spending Thanksgiving with Tamir as a family. His mother’s birthday is on Christmas Eve. Now, she won’t have the opportunity to share it with her son. We feel he did not deserve to be taken away from us.
While we request the release of the complete video, we also ask for the media to give our family privacy as we continue to grieve and learn about what happened. We feel the actions of the patrol officer who took our son’s life must be made public.
