The U.S. Justice Department have declined to charge the Cleveland officers involved in the fatal 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice, and have closed its investigation. An independent federal investigation into the Nov. 22, 2014, shooting of the 12-year-old Black boy seen playing with a toy gun at a park “found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against Cleveland Division of Police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback,” accordimg to a statement from the DOJ. The statement added that Rice’s family attorneys were notified of the decision and were also sent a letter “explaining the findings of the investigation and reasons for the decision.”
Rice was shot twice after officers responded to a 911 call reporting a male who was “probably a juvenile” pointing a “probably fake” gun at people in a playground at Cudell Park Recreation Center. Rice died in a hospital the next day.
In 2015, an Ohio grand jury did not pursue charges against Officers Loehmann and Garmback. Loehmann was fired in 2017 due to inaccuracies in his application form and Garmback was suspended for 10 days for violating a tactical rule by driving too close to Rice on the day of the shooting.
