It took police officers less than two seconds to fatally shoot Tamir Rice after they sped up to the 12-year-old boy while he was playing with a toy gun in a park across the street from his home. Yet the investigation into the shooting has now dragged on into its fifth month. After the City Of Cleveland asked the Rice family to halt their wrongful death civil lawsuit until the official investigation is concluded, new details of the family's hellish reality have emerged.
The Rice family claim they cannot halt their lawsuit because they're worried crucial evidence could be lost. In fact, they have yet to bury Tamir because they're unclear if there will be a need for additional medical examinations. And Tamir's mother Samaria moved into a homeless shelter in mid-January because she couldn't stand living next door to the " killing field" where her son was murdered.
Benjamin Crump, an attorney working with the Rice family, had this to say at a news conference:
We come here to Cleveland, Ohio, brothers and sisters, where we had video capture the whole entire episode of what happened to claim this baby's life. And yet, after five months and counting, no one has been charged, no one has been held accountable for the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Although the entire incident was caught on camera—including the fact that the officers did not give Rice any medical attention for four minutes after the shooting—no charges have been brought against the officers involved. In comparison it took less than three weeks for Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby to charge the six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray.
Wesley Lowery has more details on the Rice case over on The Washington Post.
(Image: Richardson & Kucharski Co. via AP)
