REPORT:
A 12-year-old male was playing with a replica airsoft gun toy in his home neighborhood. Another member of the neighborhood called the police to report a "male" that "keeps pulling a fun out of his pants and pointing it at people," not disclosing that it was a child. The caller also reported that "it is probably fake" during the phone call on two occasions, but not until midway through the report. Upon arrival, the officers saw the 12-year-old sitting at a picnic table in a pavilion. He got up and put the gun in his waistband and began to walk way. The officers exited their vehicle and shouted "Show me your hands" three times at the 12-year-old male. When the child went to remove the airsoft gun form his waistband while approaching the vehicle, two shots were fired and both struck the 12-year-old male in the chest. From the moment of the officer's arrival to the shooting of the 12-year-old male, approximately 2 seconds or less had transpired in this event.
INVESTIGATION:
While reviewing the evidence of the shooting event that ended the 12-year-old male's life, it was discovered that one of the officers - the shooting officer - had been an officer at a different location. He was going to be fired due to a severe lack of emotional stability that is required when acting as an officer, but had chosen to resign rather than be officially fired. This evidence was found in a memorandum issued to the Human Resources department at his previous percent. The shooting officer did not disclose this information when being hired to the precinct he worked for at the time of the shooting. It was also revealed that the other officer present at the shooting had a previous incident during his career as an officer in which he was involved in a case & settlement for using excessive force on a non-violent dispatch call.
Surveillance footage was reviewed and revealed that the vehicle the officers were in was not fully stopped at the time of the shooting. It took four minutes for detectives to arrive to the scene from a different crime scene, and an additional three minutes before paramedics arrived to take the 12-year-old male to a hospital. He officially died the day after the shooting occurred. A secondary video footage tape was utilized in the evidence review which shows the 12-year-old male had a 14-year-old female sibling run up to him two minutes after the shooting occurred but was pinned to the ground and handcuffed. It was also discovered that four minutes passed before any life saving measures were utilized on the boy after the shooting. During these investigations, both involved officers were placed on administrative leave with pay.
RESULTS:
A grand jury reviewed the evidence provided regarding the shooting that resulted in a 12-year-old male's death on month after the event transpired. The grand jury decided that they would not indict the officers involved in the shooting, resulting in no criminal punishment for the shooting. However, the precinct did choose to fire the shooting officer for lying on his original application that resulted in his being hired as an officer. Officially action was taken against the dispatcher that took the call as well due to the fact that the dispatcher did not inform the officers of the statements made by the caller that the suspect was a juvenile/child and that the weapon was probably fake/not a real firearm. This dispatcher was suspended for eight days.DISCLAIMER: The events described are actually the events that occurred resulting in the death of Tamir Rice. He was killed by Timothy Loehmann who was not charged with any crimes for taking the life of an innocent child playing with an airsoft gun, and only lost his job for lying on his job application.
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