All three reports concluded that Loehman’s shooting of Tamir was “objectively reasonable.” In my opinion, the reports reached the right conclusions. Importantly, the reports only considered Loehman’s actions in terms of criminal liability for the death of Tamir. County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty had the reports posted on his office’s webpage.   Prosecutor McGinty announced that the investigations served only to guide his office. He made it clear that the case would be presented to a Grand Jury.

On Monday, December 28, 2015, Prosecutor McGinty stood before television cameras and behind a bank of microphones. His office had called the news conference to announce and discuss the grand jury’s decision in the Tamir Rice shooting. The Ohio grand jury had reviewed the evidence and deliberated on the possible charges against the officers. The grand jurors voted not to indict the officers for their roles in the shooting of Tamir. The County Prosecutor expressed his view that:

“Given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and communications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police.” He went on to say that “It is likely that Tamir, whose size made him look much older and who had been warned his pellet gun might get him into trouble that day, either intended to hand it over to the officers or show them it wasn’t a real gun…But there was no way for the officers to know that, because they saw the events rapidly unfolding in front of them from a very different perspective.”

After the Prosecutor’s announcement of no indictment, a spokesperson for the CPD stated that the department would immediately conduct its administration investigation into the actions of the officers. Disciplinary charges might be filed against the Officers if the evidence adduced at the hearings call for it. I am convinced that Officer’s Loehmann’s actions, under the circumstances that existed at the time that Tamir was shot, violated departmental guidelines and regulations. Officer Loehmann escaped criminal liability for killing Tamir; however, I do not believe that he will avoid disciplinary action for the shooting.

The family of Tamir Rice denounced the grand jury’s failure to indict the officers in the shooting. It is understandable that they wanted someone held criminally responsible for the shooting of Tamir. According to the family’s attorney, Walter Madison, Tamir was holding the pellet gun for an 18-year-old who was charging his cell phone. The attorney stated that Tamir had only had the fake gun for a few minutes before he was shot.  To a large degree, this version of how Tamir came into possession of the gun is consistent with investigator’s version.

Many Black parents argued that Tamir’s physical stature played a disproportionate role in the shooting. For a twelve-year-old, Tamir was  large for his age.  According to the stereotype , wide-bodied and large Black youth are  inherently violent. Many White police officers operate under this stereotype, which is rooted in U.S. slavery. We should not discount the possibility that this stereotype might have kicked in when Officer Loehmann arrived at the recreation center. Yet, it could not have been the main reason why he discharged his weapon two seconds after arriving at the scene. At the speed with which the tragic events unfolded, Loehmann could not have had time to calculate Tamir’s age. According to his account of the events, he believed Tamir was an adolescent. Tamir’s family members described him as “big boy.” Yet, they would also add that he carried himself like an average 12-year old American kid.

I believe that it is more likely that Loehmann simply acted under the general belief that Blacks are prone to violence and that minorities neighborhoods breed violence. Many people, regardless of their race, expressed the view that had Tamir been white Loehmann would not have discharged his weapon so quickly. He would have taken some time to properly evaluate the situation in the hope of not having to use his weapon.  The facts of the shooting easily support the belief that Tamir being Black played a large part in Loehmann decision to discharge his weapon.The sad truth is that Blacks do not welcome White police officers in their communities and the offices do not want to patrol Black neighborhoods. The mutual distrust between Blacks and White police officers is tearing a hole in the fabric of American society.

Even though not all the relevant facts surrounding the shooting have been developed, I believe that the Officers could have safely taken a few more seconds to properly evaluate the situation before shooting Tamir. When “Adam 25” rolled into the park, Tamir was not waving the gun about. 911 had not received any more calls about a guy “waving a gun around” in the park.  Therefore, the Officers did not receive any further updates to the original dispatch. If the Officers took the time to obverse the activity in the park, they would have seen that there was no unusual activity taking place in the park. The park activity appeared as it should on any given late-fall Saturday afternoon.

Under these circumstances, the Officers should have stayed in the car and tried to communicate with Tamir. They could have used a megaphone to call out to him. Also, while one officer approached Tamir, the other could have shifted his position to avoid giving Tamir an easy shot, if Tamir was intent on discharging his weapon. If backup was on the way, the Officers could have waited for the extra officers to help in evaluating the situation.  The mere presence of the patrol car probably would have prompted Tamir’s sister and other children to meet the Officer’s advances. In my opinion, the situation if left alone for a few seconds might have developed to the point where the Officers would have discovered that Tamir was a child playing with a toy gun. Officer Loehmann seemed to have acted under the belief that it was better to shoot first and then and then ask questions.

The streets of Cleveland would be much safer without police officers like Garmback and Loehmann.