Officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice claims he aimed for toy gun, gave verbal commands

Cleveland, Ohio, police officer Timothy Loehmann, who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year, has given his first publicly-available account of just what happened. In an unsworn statement released yesterday by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback claim that they followed policy and aimed for the toy gun in Rice’s hand. According to WBAL:

Loehmann said he and his partner responded to a report of a "male waiving [sic] a gun and pointing at people" and he saw the suspect put something into his waistband.

When Rice turned towards the patrol car, Loehmann claimed he "yelled continuously 'show me your hands' as loud as I could," the statement said.

Loehmann said the suspect "appeared to be over 18 years old and about 185 pounds."

"The suspect lifted his shirt reached down into his waistband. We continued to yell 'show me your hands.' I was focused on the suspect," Loehmann wrote. "Even when he was reaching into his waistband, I didn't fire. I still was yelling the command 'show me your hands.'"

Loehmann said the suspect "had been threatening others with the weapon and had not obeyed our command to show us his hands," according to the statement. "He was facing us. This was an active shooter situation."

"I had very little time as I exited the vehicle...I observed the suspect pulling the gun out of the waistband with his elbow coming up," he wrote.

Video shows rice being shot in less than 2 seconds after car door opens.

He said he fired two shots, aiming towards the gun in Rice's hand, the statement said, based on "tap-tap" training.

The issue of verbal commands cannot be confirmed by either the video or witnesses, but several questions still remain. Why did the officers approach a person they believed to be an armed man “over 18 years old and about 185 pounds” so closely and put themselves in harm’s way, as they describe it? How the hell could officers so clearly incapable of assessing a person’s age and threat level remain on the force? Could proper protocol really have been followed in the mere seconds from police escalation to Tamir Rice’s death? 

Of course, these questions could be answered in a true trial with vigorous cross-examination. But Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty has gone for a grand jury, one that he already poisoned by publicly releasing pro-police reports and leaking information—before the jury was even selected.