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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

No charges in Tamir Rice death

A photo of Tamir Rice rests on the ground near a memorial outside the Cudell Recreation Center, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, in Cleveland. A grand jury on Monday declined to criminally indict the two officers in Tamir's killing in November 2014 at the recreation center.
A photo of Tamir Rice rests on the ground near a memorial outside the Cudell Recreation Center, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, in Cleveland. A grand jury on Monday declined to criminally indict the two officers in Tamir's killing in November 2014 at the recreation center.

In explaining the decision, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said it was “indisputable” that the boy was drawing the pistol from his waistband when he was gunned down. McGinty said Tamir was trying to either hand the weapon over to police or show them it wasn’t real, but the officer and his partner had no way of knowing that.

“Simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police,” McGinty said.

He said patrolman Timothy Loehmann was justified in opening fire: “He had reason to fear for his life.” Read more.



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.