BREAKING NEWS: The City of Cleveland to pay $6M to family of Tamir Rice
The city of Cleveland has agreed to pay $6 million to the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black youth fatally shot by a white police officer in a tragedy caught on video.
An order filed in federal court in Cleveland said the city will pay the family $3 million this year and another $3 million in 2017. There is no admission of wrongdoing, and the agreement still needs to be officially approved by the probate court.
The case is one of a several across the nation that prompted "Black Lives Matter" protests.
Rice, 12, was fatally shot outside Cudell Recreation Center on Nov. 22, 2014, and last December a Cleveland grand jury declined to bring charges in the case. Timothy Loehmann and his training officer, Frank Garmback, responded to a report about a man with a gun near a recreation center. A dispatcher did not tell them the caller thought it was probably a child with a fake gun.
Tamir likely meant to show the officers his gun was a toy that shot plastic pellets, but there was no way the officers could have known that when they confronted him, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said. Loehmann has said he ordered Tamir to show them his hands. He said Tamir reached for his waistband and that he saw a gun and fired to protect himself and Garmback.
McGinty said the dispatcher's failure to provide the information about the "fake gun" was key to the case. Announcement of the grand jury decision drew hundreds of protesters to city streets for mostly peaceful protests.
The estate of Tamir Rice will receive $5.5 million from the settlement. The boy's mother Samaria Rice will directly receive $250,000, with the rest funding claims against Tamir's estate.
The family's lawyer, Subodh Chandra, released a statement saying the "historic" financial terms of the settelement can't compensate for the loss of Tamir's life.
"Regrettably, Tamir’s death is not an isolated event," statement said. "The problem of police violence, especially in communities of color, is a crisis plaguing our nation. It is the Rice family's sincere hope that Tamir’s death will stimulate a movement for genuine change in our society and our nation’s policing so that no family ever has to suffer a tragedy such as this again."
The settlement is believed to be a record for the city. Cleveland settled its lawsuits with the families of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell for $1.5 million each after the couple was shot in 2012 following a police chase. Officer Michael Brelo was acquitted of manslaughter charges following a criminal trial in 2015.
The city also settled lawsuits involving the accidental shooting by police of an 8-year-old boy in 2003 for $1.9 million and a 16-year-old boy in 2008 for $1 million
But is this really Justice? I'm sure she'd rather have Tamir back!
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