Cleveland police shot and killed Tamir Rice, 12, Saturday. The preteen was sitting on a swing, wearing a camouflage hat, outside the Cudell Recreation Center and holding a BB gun.
On the playground, the boy began to play with the gun and aimed it at other park-goers. People began to fear for their lives, and a man called 911. When speaking with 911, he said Rice was “scaring the s— out of everyone.” He added that Rice was “probably a juvenile” and the gun was “probably fake,” but that somehow the police didn’t receive that message. The toy’s orange safety tip had been removed, so it resembled a real semiautomatic weapon.
The police found Rice under a gazebo, tucking the gun into his waistband, when they arrived at the scene. Officers asked Rice to raise his hands, but he reportedly raised his shirt and reached for the gun instead. An officer then fired two shots. One hit the boy in the stomach.
Rice was rushed to MetroHealth Medical Center, but succumbed to his injuries Sunday morning, according to the medical examiner.
According to Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Jeff Follmer, “The officer had no clue he was a 12-year-old.” He also said to WKYC-TV, “He had no clue it was a toy gun, he was kind of shocked. He was concentrating more on the hands than on the age. It’s not, ‘Go shoot a 12-year-old with a good fake gun.’ It’s not that scenario at all. This is a compassionate officer.”
However, the family’s attorney Timothy Kucharski told the Plain Dealer, “You have to look at this in the context that this is a 12-year-old boy, not a 35-year-old man with a criminal history. You can’t expect adult reactions out of children.”
“That’s my superhero. Who would’ve thought he would go so soon? He had his whole life ahead,” said Gregory Henderson, a Rice family friend, to a news station. “To be 12 years old, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Police they know what they’re doing.”
Following Saturday’s shooting, the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave as the investigation begins. Surveillance videos have been collected from the recreation center and will be presented to the grand jury to determine if the officer used excessive force.
Kucharsk told the Plain Dealer that Rice’s family is devastated; his mother “inconsolable.”
The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t keep historical data on cases such as this, although similar incidents have been reported. The Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that in 1990 United States Police used force 200 times per year “in a confrontation where an imitation gun had been mistaken for a real firearm.” Whether or not the person wielding the weapon is a child or not has become an issue over the years.