The city of Cleveland has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of Tamir Rice, a 12, shot and killed by a city police officer in November 2014.
Officer Timothy Loehmann shot Rice while he was playing with an airsoft pellet gun outside Cudell Recreation Center on West Boulevard in Cleveland, Ohio, after receiving a 911 call that someone was playing with a gun.
Rolling out reported in November 2014:
Following a 911 call, police arrived at Cudell Recreation Center at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. The caller told the dispatcher he saw a man, wearing a camo hat and a gray jacket, waving a gun around.
The caller says: “The guy keeps pulling it out. It’s probably fake, but you know what, he’s scaring the s*** 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?”
In December 2015, we reported: Jury declines to indict White police officer who killed Tamir Rice. According to prosecutor Tim McGinty, the shooting of a 12-year-old boy with a toy gun was justified under the law. “The evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police.”
A lawsuit was filed by Rice’s family two weeks after his death on November 23, 2014.
Today, April 25, 2016, a settlement was revealed via a court filing from U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who presided over settlement talks.
Tamir Rice’s estate will receive $5.5 million, Samaria Rice, the boy’s mother, and his sister Tajai Rice will each receive $250,000. Neither the city nor the officers or dispatchers involved will admit to any wrongdoing. The city will pay $3 million this year and $3 million in 2017.
It’s not quite over yet because it must be approved by a Cuyahoga County Probate Court judge before it is finalized.
