A 12-year-old boy who was shot by Cleveland police officers while
carrying a replica gun in a park playground has died, hospital officials
said today.
The boy, identified by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office as
Tamir Rice, died at MetroHealth Medical Center after he was taken there
for surgery Saturday afternoon, according to the medical examiner.
Officers were called to the Cudell Recreation Center after receiving
reports of the boy waving a gun and pointing it at people, the Cleveland
Division of Police said in a statement.
Two officers found Rice in the playground and ordered him to raise his
hands, but he instead reached for what the officers thought was a gun in
his waistband, police said.
The officers fired twice, hitting the boy in the torso.
Officers learned the gun was fake after the shooting, police said. Made
to resemble a semi-automatic pistol, the orange safety indicator had
been removed from the "airsoft" replica gun the boy was holding, police
said.
"We are not rushing to judgment," said Timothy Kucharski, an attorney
for Rice's mother. "The police are investigating the matter and we are
waiting for the result of that investigation."
Kucharski will conduct his own investigation alongside the police
investigation, he said. The results of the private investigation will
determine whether the Rice family will pursue civil litigation, he said.
"Right now my only goal is to help the family with the grieving process," Kucharski said.
The witness who made the initial 911 call to police told the dispatcher
that the boy's gun may not have been real and that he was a juvenile,
according to audio released by the Cleveland Police Department on
Sunday.
"It's probably fake," the witness said. "But it's scaring ... people."
The two officers involved in the shooting have been put on administrative leave, which is standard protocol