Another Black child with a toy gun was killed by police, this time in Columbus, Ohio. The shooting is being compared to the shooting of Tamir Rice by Cleveland police but this time according to officers they may have had reason to fear for their lives. According to police Tyree King, 13, was in the area of a reported armed robbery Wednesday night.
King was with two other suspects who were confronted by the police when he and another juvenile began to run. Cops pursued the pair into an alley where King allegedly reached into his waistband and pulled out a gun with a scope on it. This caused one of the pursuing officers to open fire on the teen, shooting him multiple times. King was transported to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he died from his injuries. Investigators later found the firearm King had pulled was in fact a BB gun with an attached laser scope. The unidentified suspect with King was interviewed and released pending further investigation. The officers will receive “mandated psychological support counseling” and be given the opportunity to “take leave time to assist in recovery from a traumatic experience,” according to the Columbus Division of Police.
In 2014 the Cleveland Police Department came under national scrutiny when an officer shot Tamir Rice, 12, while he was playing with a toy gun at a park.
The Cleveland Police Department was sharply criticized after one of its rookie cops fatally shot Tamir Rice in November 2014. Rice was playing with a toy gun near a gazebo when he was killed. Officer Timothy Loehmann, a trainee, shot Tamir moments after arriving in response to the call. Police said the boy was pulling out what was later found to be a toy gun when he was shot. The city of Cleveland paid $6 million to settle the federal lawsuit filed by the family of Tamir Rice, but the city acknowledged no fault in the youngster’s death.
