Cleveland sorry for blaming Tamir for his own death
The city of Cleveland has apologized to the family of Tamir Rice, a teenager shot dead by US police, over earlier comments that blamed the unarmed African American for his own death.
"This is not the character or personality of the city of Cleveland to be that insensitive to the family or even the victim," Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said at a news conference on Monday, Huffington Post reported.
The city had claimed that the 12-year-old died because he failed to “exercise due care to avoid injury” and that the family’s “injuries, losses and damages” were caused by their own acts.
The allegations, made in a series of defenses filed on Friday, outraged the victim’s family, leaving them in “disbelief”.
“They were completely and totally outraged by the city’s response,” Walter Madison, an attorney for Rice’s family, said. “They have just begun to pick up the pieces after having lost a loved and then to be blown to pieces yet again about this incredulous claim that this 12-year-old is at fault for his death.”
The teenager was fatally shot after a rookie police officer mistook his toy gun for a real one outside a Cleveland recreation center on November 22.
A surveillance video released following the boy’s death showed that he was shot two seconds after the police vehicle pulled up beside him.
The US has recently been confronted with several cases of police brutality, where unarmed black men have died after encounters with police.
The killings have led to Black Lives Matter protests throughout the United States to slam racial profiling by police.
Based on a recent study by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, 313 black people were killed in 2012 by police officers, private security guards and members of the public and in most cases, the perpetrator was not indicted.
NT/NT
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