US white cop faces no charges for fatal shooting of black teen
The white rookie police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice while playing with a toy gun will face no charges.
On Monday, a grand jury in Ohio declined to indict officer Timothy Loehmann for opening fire against the African American teen just two seconds after arriving at the scene in Cleveland on November 22, 2014.
Rice was pulling out the airsoft gun from his waistband to either hand it over to the cops or show them that it is not real.
Prosecutor Tim McGinty said, however, that Loehmann and his partner had no way of knowing what was happening.
"Simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police," McGinty said. "He had reason to fear for his life."
The "all-important fact" that the person who called police said the gunman was probably a youngster and the gun was probably fake, had been miscommunicated to the officer, McGinty argued.
Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Meyer also said that differentiating between a fake and a real gun was "extremely difficult" for Loehmann.
The decision was faced with condemnation from Tamir’s family.
Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter activists started gathering in front of the courthouse, where barricades had been set up.
People in the US have been simmering with rage following the death of several unarmed black Americans at the hands of cops and grand jury decisions not to indict them.
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