Video shows Cleveland police shot boy with air gun within 2 seconds of arriving

World Today

The police officer who fatally shot a 12-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun fired within one and a half to two seconds of pulling up in his cruiser, police said Wednesday. During those few moments, they said he ordered the youngster three times to put up his hands.

The city released a surveillance video that shows the shooting of Tamir Rice, who was carrying an air soft gun that shoots non-lethal plastic pellets.

Much of the footage shows what appears to be a bored kid alone in a park on an unseasonably warm November afternoon. Tamir is seen pacing, occasionally extending his right arm with what appears to be a gun in his hand, talking on a cellphone and sitting a picnic table with his head resting on his arms.

The gun wasn’t real, and lacked the bright orange tip that is usually put on such weapons to indicate they’re not real.

Tamir’s family said they has seen the video of his shooting.

“It is our belief that this situation could have been avoided and that Tamir should still be here with us,” the family said in a statement released by attorneys. “The video shows one thing distinctly: the police officers reacted quickly.”

The Ohio shooting came as protesters across the United States decried a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer who killed an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri.

Read more about Ferguson shooting HERE

The patrol officer who shot Tamir was identified Wednesday as Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old rookie who began his career in Cleveland in March. He previously spent five months in 2012 with a department in a Cleveland suburb, but four of those months were in that city’s police academy.

Loehmann’s partner that day was identified as Frank Garmback, 46. He has been with the department since 2008. Both are on paid administrative leave pending a decision by the prosecutor’s office on whether to pursue criminal charges.

What is striking about the video police showed Wednesday is the speed at which the shooting occurred.

At one moment, Tamir is sitting at a picnic table. He stands and a police car zooms into the frame from the right and stops near Tamir. The passenger door opens and Loehmann shoots Tamir before Garmback can get out the driver’s side door.

It’s unclear how far Tamir was from Loehmann when the officer shot him, but Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said Wednesday that it was less than 10 feet (3 meters).

The low-resolution video shows Tamir reaching to his waistband and then bending over after being shot. His body is mostly obscured by the patrol car when he falls to the ground. Garmback can be seen walking around the car and kicking what is said to be the air soft gun away from Tamir.

Tomba told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that an FBI agent who was working a bank robbery detail nearby arrived within a few minutes and administered first aid to Tamir. Paramedics arrived three minutes later. The boy died on Sunday at a Cleveland hospital.

Tomba said the city released the video at the behest of Tamir’s family.

This story is compiled with information from the Associated Press.