WASHINGTON, DC (WTVG) – Four Ohio lawmakers are calling on the US Department of Justice to reopen a civil rights investigation into the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014. Rice was shot and killed by police officers in Cleveland while playing a park with a toy gun.
In a letter sent to the DOJ, Senator Sherrod Brown and Representatives Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan and Joyce Beatty state that “Tamir Rice should be alive today,” adding, “Data shows young black Americans like Tamir are They are more likely to die from police shots than young white Americans. “
Legislators sent the letter just days after a jury found multiple guilty verdicts against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd last year. Activists hope the ruling could mark a turning point in cases like Floyd and Rice, where black men and boys are killed by police.
You can read the full text of the letter below:
Dear Attorney General Garland:
Tamir Rice should still be alive today. We are writing to urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to immediately reopen the civil rights investigation into his death.
On November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice was playing in a park in Cleveland, Ohio when someone called the police, an experience all too familiar to black Americans. Officers arrived on site and found a boy playing alone with a toy gun in the middle of a park. Within moments, an officer shot Tamir and beat and killed the 12-year-old boy while the police car was still rolling. Tamir stood in the middle of a park and posed no imminent danger of bodily harm. Let’s repeat: Tamir should still be alive today. Data shows that young black Americans like Tamir are more likely to die from police shots than young white Americans.
It is also important to consider the context in which this incident occurred. In March 2013, the DOJ conducted a review of 600 violence incidents involving the Cleveland Police Department between 2010 and 2013. Based on this review, the DOJ found reasonable grounds to believe that the Cleveland Police Department had committed a pattern or practice of using excessive force and violating the rights of Ohioans under the Fourth Amendment. They found a wide range of system failures, including lack of accountability, inadequate training, ineffective policies, and poor community engagement.
In 2015, the Obama administration’s DOJ opened an investigation into the officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice and the entire Cleveland Police Department. The latter resulted in a consent decree between the DOJ and the Cleveland Police Department. While this informed consent is an important tool in preventing such cases from occurring again, it did not assume any responsibility for Tamir’s death. The DOJ’s investigation into the officer who killed Tamir was ongoing by the end of President Obama’s tenure, and the Trump administration abruptly closed the investigation in 2020, providing very little insight or information about the process .
Justice belated is justice denied, and accountability for Tamir Rice’s death has been delayed for more than six years. We therefore strongly support the request of Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, that the DOJ reopen its investigation into her son’s case.
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