‘Cruel’ video shows Cleveland police tackled teen after brother was shot

A Cleveland police officer pushed a 14-year-old girl to the ground and handcuffed her in the aftermath of the shooting of her younger brother, freshly released footage shows.

In grainy surveillance video relased by the city authorities officers are seen struggling with the teen, whose name has not yet been released, before putting her in the back seat of a patrol car parked next to the where 12-year-old Tamir Rice lay on the snowy ground bleeding. Rice's killing at the hands of a white police officer is among the latest flashpoints in a nationwide outcry against what many call police brutality against black communities. 

Northeast Ohio Media Group is reporting that it obtained the nearly 30-minute-long video from the city on Wednesday after officials initially refused to release it. Other media outlets were given the video Thursday.

Patrol officer Timothy Loehmann shot Rice in the abdomen within two seconds of a patrol car stopping near the boy on Nov. 22. The boy died the next day.

Rice's family gave the city permission to release another version of the video days after the shooting. That video shows Rice in a park near a recreation center carrying what turned out to be an airsoft-type gun that shoots non-lethal plastic pellets. That video ends with Loehmann, a rookie officer, shooting Rice.

Loehmann and his training officer and the driver of the patrol car, Frank Garmback, had responded to a report about a man with a gun. A police union official has said the officers thought the gun was real and that they didn't know Tamir, who was 5 feet 7 and weighed 195 pounds, was so young.

The new video begins with the shooting of Rice. About 90 seconds later, Rice's sister runs toward her fallen brother and Garmback immediately pushes her to the ground. Garmback and another officer are then shown handcuffing the struggling teen and finally placing her in the back seat of Loehmann and Garmback's patrol car.

Walter Madison, an attorney for the family, called the treatment of the 14-year-old sister "the cruelest thing I've ever seen on video." He also criticized the officers for not providing Rice with medical attention. An FBI agent on a bank robbery detail nearby arrived about four minutes after the shooting and began first aid.

The city last week turned over the investigation of the shooting to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department. The county prosecutor is expected to present the case to a grand jury to determine if criminal charges should be filed against Loehmann and Garmback.

The Associated Press