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Cleveland
settles
lawsuit
over
Tamir
Rice
shooting
for $6M
By MARK
GILLISPIE
Associated
Press
CLEVELAND
- The
city on
Monday
reached
a $6
million
settlement
in a
lawsuit
over the
death of
Tamir
Rice, a
12-year-old
black
boy shot
by a
white
police
officer
while
playing
with a
pellet
gun
outside
a
recreation
center.
An order
filed in
U.S.
District
Court in
Cleveland
said the
city
will pay
out $3
million
this
year and
$3
million
the
next.
There
was no
admission
of
wrongdoing
in the
settlement.
Family
attorney
Subodh
Chandra
called
the
settlement
historic
but
added:
"The
resolution
is
nothing
to
celebrate
because
a
12-year-old
child
needlessly
lost his
life."
The
wrongful
death
suit
filed by
his
family
and
estate
against
the city
and
officers
and
dispatchers
who were
involved
alleged
police
acted
recklessly
when
they
confronted
the boy
on Nov.
22,
2014.
Video of
the
encounter
shows a
cruiser
skidding
to a
stop and
rookie
patrolman
Timothy
Loehmann
firing
within
two
seconds
of
opening
the car
door.
Tamir
wasn't
given
first
aid
until
about
four
minutes
later,
when an
FBI
agent
trained
as a
paramedic
arrived.
The boy
died the
next
day.
Tamir's
death
has
fueled
the
Black
Lives
Matter
movement
that
firmly
took
root in
2014
after
Michael
Brown in
Ferguson,
Missouri,
and Eric
Garner
in New
York
City
died at
the
hands of
police.
Grand
juries
declined
to
indict
officers
in those
two
deaths
and in
the
shooting
of
Tamir.
A trial
is
pending
for a
federal
civil
rights
lawsuit
filed by
Brown's
family.
Garner's
family
received
a $5.9
million
in a
settlement
with New
York
City
last
year.
In the
Rice
family
lawsuit,
Samaria
Rice had
alleged
that
police
failed
to
immediately
provide
first
aid for
her son
and
caused
intentional
infliction
of
emotional
distress
in how
they
treated
her and
her
daughter
after
the
shooting.
The
officers
had
asked a
judge to
dismiss
the
lawsuit.
Loehmann's
attorney
has said
he bears
a heavy
burden
and must
live
with
what
happened.
Tamir's
estate
has been
assigned
$5.5
million
of the
settlement.
A
Cuyahoga
County
probate
judge
will
decide
how the
amount
will be
divided.
Samaria
Rice,
Tamir's
mother,
will
receive
$250,000.
Claims
against
Tamir's
estate
account
for the
remaining
$250,000.
Tamir's
father,
Leonard
Warner,
was
dismissed
in
February
as a
party to
the
lawsuit.
Chandra
said the
Rice
family
remains
in
mourning
over
Tamir's
death.
"The
state
criminal
justice
process
cheated
them out
of true
justice,"
Chandra
said.
A somber
Mayor
Frank
Jackson
said at
a news
conference
Monday
that
"there
is no
price
you can
put on
the life
of a
12-year-old
child."
He said
the
shooting
"should
not have
happened"
but
didn't
elaborate.
Jackson
said a
use-of-force
committee
is
examining
the
circumstances
of the
shooting
to
determine
if
Loehmann
and his
training
officer,
Frank
Garmback,
should
be
disciplined.
The
officers
had
responded
to a 911
call in
which a
man
drinking
a beer
and
waiting
for a
bus
outside
Cudell
Recreation
Center
reported
that a
man was
waving a
gun and
pointing
it at
people.
The man
told the
call
taker
that the
person
holding
the gun
was
likely a
juvenile
and the
weapon
probably
wasn't
real,
but the
call
taker
never
passed
that
information
to the
dispatcher
who gave
Loehmann
and
Garmback
the
high-priority
call.
Tamir
was
carrying
a
plastic
airsoft
gun that
shoots
nonlethal
plastic
pellets.
He'd
borrowed
it that
morning
from a
friend
who
warned
him to
be
careful
because
the gun
looked
real. It
was
missing
its
telltale
orange
tip.
The
settlement
comes
two
years
after
the city
settled
another
lawsuit
connected
to the
killings
of two
unarmed
black
people
in a
137-shot
barrage
of
police
gunfire
at the
end of a
2012 car
chase.
Cleveland
settled
a
lawsuit
brought
by the
families
of
Timothy
Russell
and
Malissa
Williams
for $3
million.
The
fatal
shootings
of
Russell
and
Williams
were
cited by
the U.S.
Justice
Department
in an
investigation
into
excessive
use of
force by
Cleveland
police
and
helped
lead to
a
court-monitored
consent
decree
aimed at
reforming
the
department.
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