This is tragic.
The CCTV footage, although muted and fuzzy, shows that one moment Tamar Rice was playing with an “airsoft” gun in a park, and the next moment he was fatally injured after being shot down.
Cops released footage of the incident after the schoolboy’s family demanded that it be made public.
It certainly seemed, to observers on the scene, as though he was causing some mischief in the park leading up to the Cleveland Police arriving on the scene…
“The guy keeps pulling it out,” the 911 caller said, according to WKYC. “It’s probably fake, but you know what, he’s scaring the (expletive) out of (inaudible). … He’s sitting on the swing right now, but he keeps pulling it in and out of his pants and pointing it at people. Probably a juvenile, you know? … I don’t know if it’s real or not, you know?”
Word is, this information from the 911 caller about the possible fake gun was not relayed onto the patrol car, so you could imagine their reaction when they saw the poor kid holding a “rifle”.
It was so quick – from arriving on the scene to pulling the trigger. Who knows what was said in between, but according to the police reports, Tamar was asked to ‘put his hands up’, but he didn’t comply.
Deputy Chief Edward Tomba called the shooting an“obvious tragic event.”
Do you agree?
