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Video Released Proving Cops Didn’t Wait One Second Before Shooting 12-Year-Old Holding Toy Gun
Tamir E. Rice, the 12-year-old Cleveland youth who died on Sunday at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland was shot without a moment to respond to police last weekend. A newly-released video shows Rice walking around the Cudell park with a BB gun in his hand (scroll down for video).
The shooting is eerily similar to the death of John Crawford, in Beavercreek, Ohio. Both victims of police shootings can be seen on video looking more or less bored and talking on their cell phones before officers arrived.
We now know that the responding officers in Tamir’s case were Frank Garmack, 46, a six-year veteran of the force, and Timothy Lowman, 26, a rookie who had only been with the department since March.
In reference to the police release of the video of the shooting, Deputy Chief Edward Tomba just said “we are honoring the wishes of the family and releasing this and also in the spirit of being open and fair with our community,” during a press conference today.
Watch the video release at the conference in the video below…
Shortly after the shooting, we spoke with police representatives at the First District Cleveland Police Department but they were unwilling to say much other than the basics.
They acknowledge that a 12-year-old was shot in the stomach by a First District officer. They would not reveal the name of that officer. When we asked them if the child was armed, they hesitated and said “we really can’t say.”
This would seem to indicate that this was a shooting of an unarmed child by police.
We asked further if they could tell us why the officer opened fire on the child. They told us that they are not willing to speak about those details at this time.
But other sources on the scene told us he was shot at the park outside Cudell Recreation Center yesterday afternoon, and that he had a BB gun, which police said they believed was real.
After the release of our story quickly swept social media, the Cleveland Police scrambled to throw together an “Official Statement” where they blamed the youth for almost essentially trying to commit “suicide by cop.” Read more about it here (link).
Their official press release painted a very vivid picture of a 12-year-old who was out to apparently gun down an officer with his… BB-gun.
The statement read: “The Preliminary information reveals that witnesses reported that a male was in the playground area of the center, waiving a gun and pointing it at people.”
But we were unable to find one witness who said such a thing. In fact, the police at first did not even say this, when we asked them point blank if the child had threatened anyone. What the 911 caller said was very different than this. They in fact told police twice that the gun was “probably fake” and said to dispatchers that the person was “probably a juvenile,” according to what police sources told us.
“Upon arrival on scene, officers located the suspect and advised him to raise his hands,” the statement continues. “The suspect did not comply with the officers’ orders and reached to his waistband for the gun. Shots were fired and the suspect was struck in the torso.”
Cleveland police are asking us to believe that an armed police officer drew a gun on a 12-year-old who was armed only with a toy weapon, and instead of complying or even ignoring the officer, the child reached for the gun to presumably aim it at the officer?
The Cleveland police are essentially asking us to believe that this 12-year-old was at the park for the purposes of “Suicide-by-cop.” Clearly no 12-year-old would think that they could get in a real shoot out with an officer, if they were armed only with a BB-gun. So the purpose of allegedly drawing the gun would only be to have the officer shoot him. That is the implication that the Cleveland Police Department’s official statement makes regarding this shooting.
But the problem is that they not only are asking us to believe this far-fetched idea, they are asking us to believe that their story is true, even when it took the release of our viral article on the shooting to prompt them to piece together a response.
When police officers ask a citizen to explain what happened when they shoot someone – allegedly in self-defense – then it is almost a tacit implication of guilty if they remain silent for hours, while piecing together what they consider to be a believable account.
So far, there has yet to be one single witness who has come forward to corroborate the official police version of events. Yet we are suppose to believe the officer’s story that paints a 12-year-old with a BB-gun as a deranged maniac out to trick officers into believing his gun was real. It seems slightly more realistic that police are covering their tracks, as they always do when they shoot someone who turns out to have been unarmed, and their story – as unbelievable and ridiculous as it is – was what they could come up with on short notice, thanks to the pressure circulation of our report on the shooting was putting on them.
A support page has been set up, demanding Justice For Tamir Rice. Please take a moment, “like” it, and SPREAD THE WORD!
Sorry but thats what u get when u reach for somthin in your waistband instead of doing what the cop says.
Sorry….I saw that video…the car didn’t stop rolling before the cops started firing on that 12 year old CHILD.
Children on playgrounds don’t expect cops to be an immediate part of their futures…..and should not be expected to behave as if cops will be an immediate part of their future.
The word immature APPLIES here for a reason……12 year olds are supposed to be immature. Cops are supposed to be mature enough to expect 12 year olds on play grounds.