In new released video, the Cleveland police officers who fatally shot 12 year old Tamir Rice are showing giving investigators their account of what happened. This was an interview taken on the day of the shooting, released by Rice family attorney Subodh Chandra.
It shows the officer’s mindsets at the time and also seems to contradict the written statements the officers, whom a jury declined to indict, given to the grand jury.
The video shows Officers Frank Garmback and Timothy Loehmann talking through what happened that day.
“[Loehmann] said, ‘I would get out of the car. I’d get in a certain stance,’” Garmback recalled for investigators. “I stopped him at that point and said, ‘This is a gun run. Be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Have your gun unholstered already on your lap.’”
At the scene:
“He looks at me, he lifts up his shirt, and he takes his other hand and reaches down and, like, pulls up … begins to pull up a weapon, a black gun,”
He says he yelled at Rice to drop the gun!
“I started screaming verbal commands, ‘Put your hands in the air,’ ‘Put your hands in the air,’ ‘Let me see your hands,’ ‘Freeze,’ ‘Put your hands in the air,’ ” Loehmann continued. “I said it numerous times.”
A visibly upset Garmback is also seen putting his hands over his face and saying “I didn’t know it was a kid.”.
The Rice Family Lawyer Chandra told the press, regarding this new video:
“As public anguish regarding young Tamir’s slaying continues, the physically impossible accounts and inconsistencies the officers offer in their video-recorded interviews raise the stakes for this last chance at public accountability through the absurdly delayed discipline process,”
The Rice family also dispute that the officers gave orders for Rice to drop the gun according to other videos of the scene.
Watch highlights from the interview video below and read more details in Atlanta Black Star.
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