Tamir Rice shooting took place in Cleveland , Ohio, on Nov. 22, 2014. The shooting occurred when police mistook a boy’s toy pellet gun for a real gun. Believing the boy, a 12-year-old African American named Tamir Rice, to be a threat, a white police officer shot him. Tamir died the next day. The shooting raised questions about the police’s use of deadly force , particularly against African Americans. The event took place at a time of heightened tensions between police and African American communities in several cities in the United States (see Black Lives Matter ).
On Nov. 22, 2014, a person called 9-1-1 after spotting Tamir playing with what appeared to be a gun in a Cleveland park. Police were notified of a black male “sitting on the swings pointing a gun at people.” Further information that the male was probably a youth and that the gun was probably fake were not relayed to the two police officers who arrived at the scene, in a squad car. As one of the officers stopped their squad car in front of Tamir, the other officer exited the car. Spotting the boy’s gun, the officer who had left the car fired at Tamir, hitting him in the torso. Tamir died in a Cleveland hospital on November 23.
A grand jury investigated the shooting. On announcing its decision, the county prosecutor called the shooting a “perfect storm of human error, mistakes, and miscommunication.” The jury decided there was no evidence of criminal conduct by police. Consequently, no charges were filed and the case was closed. In April 2016, the city of Cleveland agreed to pay $6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tamir’s family. Federal authorities also investigated the shooting. In December 2020, however, the Justice Department announced that it had found insufficient evidence to charge the officers with a federal crime.
