Prosecutor, police union still at odds in boy's death

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Prosecutor, police union still at odds in boy's death
Andrew Welsh-huggins, Ap Legal Affairs Writer
Updated 3:20 pm, Sunday, October 11, 2015


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FILE - In this Nov. 25, 2014, file photo, protesters block cars on the freeway during a protest over the weekend police shooting of Tamir Rice in Cleveland. A white Cleveland police officer was justified in fatally shooting a black 12-year-old boy holding a pellet gun moments after pulling up beside him, according to two outside reviews conducted at the request of the prosecutor investigating the death. The reports were released Saturday, Oct. 10, night by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, which asked for the outside reviews as it presents evidence to a grand jury that will ultimately determine whether Timothy Loehmann will be charged in the death of Rice.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Cleveland police union and the local prosecutor remain at odds even after the prosecutor released expert reports calling the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old black boy by a white officer justified.

Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County Prosecutor Tim McGinty says the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association isn't cooperating with the investigation into the death of Tamir Rice.

Union president Steve Loomis on Sunday said McGinty was grandstanding and ignoring the rights police officers have to not give statements during such investigations.

The boy was holding a pellet gun when he was shot outside a recreation center last year. The expert reports McGinty's office released Saturday came just a few months after a Cleveland officer was acquitted in another racially-charged case.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Reports-Officer-s-shooting-of-boy-with-pellet-6564532.php

[That Guy 888]

1. An airsoft gun is not a "pellet gun" wonder if that's from the police report.

It makes me feel very weird to see in many news stories that Tamir was holding a pellet gun which is much more dangerous than the airsoft gun he had.

Airsoft are made to look like real weapons, but they're basically harmless, and made to shoot people recreationally, like paintball. Pellet guns use highly compressed air and most of the ones here in the US are capable of killing small game like squirrels. Usually the small number of BB/pellet gun deaths each year are caused by pellet guns.

How anyone who saw the video of the shooting could call it "justified" is beyond me. The police lied about their actions and Tamir's actions.

[Judi Lynn]

2. I think the media count on ignorance within the public who read/hear their "news."

It allows the most preposterous whoppers to pass as truth, unchallenged by anyone with the power to make them clean up their act.

Thanks for explaining the difference between "airsoft" guns and "pellet" guns. You would expect the cops to know the difference, and respect it, and the journalist to research it if he/she doesn't have a clue before writing. It's the reporter's job to write the truth, no matter how shabby his/her personal standards are.

What a shame the truth doesn't seem to matter to these clowns any longer. That's why good people who know the difference are doing everyone a real service by pointing out the truth nearly buried by baloney.

[Starry Messenger]

3. K&R