The City of Cleveland will pay Tamir Rice's family $6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit over the boy's 2014 shooting death by Cleveland police.
"At the end of the day, a 12-year-old child lost their life, and that should not have happened in the City of Cleveland," said Mayor Frank Jackson at a press conference. "It should not have happened.”
The city will pay $6 million to settle all claims--$3 million will be paid in 2016 and $3 million will be paid in 2017.
The law firm representing the Rice family released statement following the announcement:
The City of Cleveland has agreed to payment of $6 million to settle the federal civil-rights lawsuit involving the tragic death of Tamir Rice. Although historic in financial terms, no amount of money can adequately compensate for the loss of a life. Tamir was 12 years old when police shot and killed him—a young boy with his entire life ahead of him, full of potential and promise.
In a situation such as this, there is no such thing as closure or justice. Nothing will bring Tamir back. His unnecessary and premature death leave a gaping hole for those who knew and loved him that can never be filled.
Regrettably, Tamir’s death is not an isolated event. The problem of police violence, especially in communities of color, is a crisis plaguing our nation. It is the Rice family's sincere hope that Tamir’s death will stimulate a movement for genuine change in our society and our nation’s policing so that no family ever has to suffer a tragedy such as this again.
CPPA President Steve Loomis released this statement on Monday:
We have maintained from the onset this has been an absolute tragedy for the Rice family as well as our involved Officers and their families. Our hearts continue to be with them.
We can only hope the Rice family and their attorneys will use a portion of this settlement to help educate the youth of Cleveland in the dangers associated with the mishandling of both real and facsimile firearms. Something positive must come from this tragic loss. That would be educating youth of the dangers of possessing a real or replica firearm.
We look forward to the possibility of working with the Rice family to achieve this common goal.
Stephen Loomis, President, CPPA
The November 2014 incident began when a man called 911 to report a child playing with a gun.
During the call, the man said he could not tell if the gun was real or not, but said, “It’s probably fake.”
A grand jury declined to bring charges against the officers, and a federal civil rights investigation is pending. The shooting raised questions about how police treat blacks, spurred protests around Cleveland and helped spark the creation of a state police standards board to lay out rules about use of deadly force in law enforcement.
Tamir's mother, 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 lived across the street from the recreation center where he played nearly every day.
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 victims' families for a total of $3 million.
