Cops Shoot And Kill Another Black Boy, 12 years Old, Over The Weekend (Video Reports)

By Josey Wales

Can we expect another Furguson situation in Cleveland? Police shoot and kill a 12 year old boy in Cleveland over the weekend.

Tamir E. Rice, died on Sunday at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County medical examiner’s office said. He was shot in the torso at a park on Saturday.

Cleveland EMS says a 12-year-old boy was shot and taken to MetroHealth Medical Center with serious injuries. According to his mother, Samaria Rice, the boy is now in critical condition after being shot in the stomach. He is currently in surgery.

Update: The Boy has now died!

The shooting happened around 3:30 p.m. at Cudell Rec Center located at 1910 West Boulevard. The facility has been taped off while units investigate, including the Cleveland Division of Police Use of Deadly Force Investigation Team.

Cleveland Police say officers responded to a radio assignment outside of the rec center for a male with a gun. Preliminary information reveals that witnesses reported a male was in the playground area of the center, waving a gun and pointing it at people.

Police say when officers arrived, they located the suspect and advised him to raise his hands. However, the suspect did not comply with the officers’ orders and reached to his waistband for the gun. Shots were fired and the suspect was struck in the torso.

“The young man had the weapon in his waistband. He pulled the weapon out. One of our officers fired two shots, striking the young man,” said Deputy Chief Ed Tomba with Cleveland Police.

Tomba said the boy did not make any verbal threats towards police, and there was no confrontation. The boy did not point the gun at officers.

Further information from police reveals the weapon was an “airsoft” type replica gun, resembling a semi-automatic pistol, with the orange safety indicator removed.

According to police, one officer was transported to Fairview Hospital for treatment of an ankle injury.

The U.S. Justice Department has said it doesn’t keep historical data on such cases, though, similar accidents have been reported from Ohio to Florida to Texas.

TheBureau of Justice Statistics reported in 1990 that police in the United States use force some 200 times per year “in a confrontation where an imitation gun had been mistaken for a real firearm.” The issue is how law enforcement officers are supposed to determine in a split second that a realistic-looking weapon is fake — or that the person wielding it is a child.

“The officer had no clue he was a 12-year-old,” Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Jeff Follmer told WKYC-TV. “He had no clue it was a toy gun; he was kind of shocked. He was concentrating more on the hands than on the age.

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