US judge: Charge cop with murder for killing Tamir Rice
A US police officer, who fatally shot 12-year-old African American Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio in 2014, should be charged with murder, says Municipal Court judge Ronald Adrine.
Officer Timothy Loehmann mistook Rice’s toy gun for a real one outside a Cleveland recreation center on November 22, 2014 and shot the boy, who died a day later.
Loehmann, who arrived at the scene with his partner Frank Garmback, opened fire within two seconds of their arrival near the area where the boy was playing with the toy gun.
Rice was shot once in the abdomen and the bullet damaged a major vein and his intestines, concluded an autopsy report by the Cuyahoga County medical examiner’s office.
Adrine said on Thursday that there was probable cause to also charge officer Garmback with involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide and dereliction of duty.
However, the Ohio judge added that he is acting in an "advisory" role and that a grand jury will ultimately decide whether the charges are warranted.
"This court is mindful that despite any conclusions it draws ... its role here is advisory in nature," Adrine wrote.
Rice's family said in a statement on Thursday that "We are grateful that the wheels of justice are starting to turn."
The ruling came days after community leaders filed affidavits requesting a judge to bring murder charges against the officers.
"The police's use of deadly force was fatal, unconscionable, that we deem criminal in nature," read a 131-page citizen complaint by 8 community leaders.
US police brutality against African Americans has become a controversial issue in the country and that many American cities have been the scene of protests over police fatal shootings of several unarmed black people and failures of grand juries to indict officers in the majority of cases.
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