Tamir Rice, 12, was fatally shot on November 22, 2014. The next day, Tamir Rice died. What followed, can only be described as a police effort to cover up the truth surrounding his death. Unfortunately though, as we have learned in the case of Eric Garner, it does not appear that having video recordings of the incident will do much to stifle the brutality of police toward black people in the United States.
In the video, Tamir Rice, can be seen walking around an area park pointing a bb-gun in various directions. That is until a police cruiser pulls up and an officer, Timothy Loehmann, within two seconds of getting out of his car, shoots Tamir.
The police then waited nearly four minutes before administering first aid to Rice. Tamir died as a result of his wounds the next day.
What followed was the police telling a story to the public that fails to reflect what can be clearly seen in the video.
On MSNBC, Chris Hayes went through the original story of what the officers alleged and what the tape shows. According to Hayes, the officers first claimed the following:
- Police claimed that Tamir was sitting under the pavilion with others. The video shows that Rice was alone.
- Police claimed that Tamir was asked three times to put his hands up before he was shot. Given the time that elapsed from the arrival of officer Loehman, those orders would have been given very rapidly to have been true.
As Hayes concludes, this video casts things in a very different light than the contradicting testimonies that were available in the case from Ferguson.
“Taken together, [the police account] sounds like it could have been a really threatening situation. … But this time, unlike in Ferguson, there is a video, and it tells a pretty different story.”
Evidence has been sent to the Grand Jury and it is unknown at this time how they will decide.
 |
Joshua is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. You can follow him on Twitter @Joshual33. |
