Probe into Cleveland police death of Tamir Rice now in prosecutors’ hands

An Ohio sheriff’s department has completed its investigation into the death of a 12-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a Cleveland policeman while the boy was holding a pellet gun, and investigators have turned the case over to county prosecutors, officials said Wednesday.

The Cuyahoga County prosecutor has said the case will be presented to a grand jury, which will determine whether criminal charges are to be filed.

Rookie patrolman Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir Rice outside a Cleveland recreational center on Nov. 22. The boy was holding an airsoft gun that fires nonlethal plastic pellets.

Loehmann and his partner had responded to a call about someone with a firearm. Surveillance video shows Loehmann firing within two seconds of the police car stopping near the boy. 

News of the completed investigation comes a day after a federal judge delayed part of a civil rights lawsuit filed by Rice's family. The judge cited concern for the officers' rights against self-incrimination.

The ruling doesn't delay the lawsuit, as it relates to the city of Cleveland.

Cleveland residents, coming off a week of highly publicized events involving Cleveland police, are anxiously awaiting a decision on whether any officers will be prosecuted in the boy's death.

Last week, officials announced a settlement between Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice after an investigation found a pattern of excessive force and civil rights violations by the city's police department. The 105-page agreement includes sweeping changes to how Cleveland officers use force, treat the community and deal with the mentally ill. It puts the 1,500-member department under the oversight of an independent monitor.

The settlement became public just three days after a white Cleveland patrolman was acquitted on May 23 of manslaughter for his role in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire that left two unarmed black suspects dead in a car in 2012. 

The Associated Press