A body cam video has revealed that 25-year-old University of Cincinnati Officer Ray Tensing lied about the traffic stop death of 43-year-old Samuel DuBose and that Tensing indeed shot DuBose in the back of the head on July 19 after he pulled him over for a missing front license plate. Tensing is charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter of DuBose and faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters questioned why the officer had to pull over DuBose at all. “He wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate. I mean this was, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken crap stop, and I could use harsher words. But nonetheless, if he’s starting to roll away…let him go. I mean, you don’t have to shoot him in the head, and that’s what happened,” Deters said.
“I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make – totally unwarranted. It’s an absolute tragedy in the year 2015 that anyone would behave in this manner. It was senseless,” he told reporters.
Tensing’s attorney Stew Mathews defended his client’s action arguing that he was being dragged by DuBose’s car and had to fire his weapon to save himself. “The guy jams the keys in the ignition. Turns the car on, jams it in the drive and mashes the accelerator. He wasn’t slowly pulling away. He feared for his life. He thought he was going to be sucked under the car that was pulling away from him. He thought he was going to get sucked under and killed,” Mathews said adding the video from the body camera worn by Phillip Kidd will give more details about the incident.
Corroborating cops in Sam DuBose murder were involved in another death of unarmed black man http://t.co/bZt5EgQ5hc pic.twitter.com/a3smbmCPK2
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) August 1, 2015
Deters said that the officer wasn’t dragged and explained why Tensing was on the ground. “He fell backwards after he shot him in the head. It is a very very short period of time from when this car just starts slowly rolling that the gun is out and he’s shot in the head,” he observed.
“Sam was a peaceful person [and] we don’t want any anger to come out that denigrates who he was,” DuBose family attorney Mark O’Mara commented after the murder indictment.
Tensing appeared before Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Megan Shanahan, who set his bond at $1 million. He was released from prison on July 30 and is set to appear in court again on August 19.
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…not just the training but the psychology rampant in American police forces and the attitudes that are allowed to prevail are the problem…and the roll the police unions (one of the few unions left with any real power backed up by an establishment that doesn’t care about those who normally come into contact with the police)and a non-responsive judiciary makes it worse…but We, the People, can change this 😉 …
Wow man USA cops are the worst poor man will never see his family again because he didn’t have a number plate.