Cops First Kill A 12-Year-Old, Now Say HE Was Responsible For His Own Death

12-Year-Old Tamir Rice was fatally shot down by Cleveland Police Officers on November 22, 2014 – he was playing with a toy gun in a park when Timothy Loehmann shot him, mistaking his toy gun to be a real weapon. Video footage of the incident confirmed Loehmann’s shooting of the boy within only two seconds of his squad car arriving at the scene following a 911 call. The cops did not give him first aid and watched him lie on the ground, writhing in agony for four minutes. He died hours later.

Three and half months later, the city’s lawyers blame Tamir for causing his own death. In response to a civil lawsuit filed by Tamir’s family, lawyers argue that Tamir was “directly and proximately” responsible for his own fatal shooting. The city has listed 20 defenses in total, including a claim that Tamir failed to “exercise due care to avoid injury” and that his mother and 14-year-old sister, Tajai, are responsible for any damages done to themselves during the incident.

Even the mayor of Cleveland has apologized, after the city claimed that Tamir died because of his own actions. Speaking at a news conference, Mayor Frank Jackson said that a complaint detailing the city’s defense used a poor choice of words and he was sorry for the “insensitivity of those words”.

The lawsuit charges that the city of Cleveland, Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback, 100 unnamed 911 operators, police officers, and city employees violated the family’s civil rights in the shooting.

The lawsuit alleges that Loehmann and his partner had handcuffed Tajai as she attempted to reach her brother, screaming, “My baby brother, they killed my baby brother!” According to the lawsuit, when Tamir’s mother arrived, cops gave her the option of going to the hospital with Tamir or staying with her handcuffed daughter in the squad car.

The lawsuit also refers to Loehmann’s personnel files from the Independent Police in 2012, which had highlighted his immaturity and inability to handle stressful situations, particularly when handling a firearm. The files go on to note that he “could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal”.

The Cleveland Police Department claims that they were unaware of the report files against Loehmann by the Independent Police pertaining to his inability to follow direction or cope with stressful situations when he was hired in March 2014.