CLEVELAND — Members of Cleveland City Council voted 14-0 on a resolution Monday afternoon to ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reopen its investigation into the 2014 shooting and killing of Tamir Rice, 12, by a former Cleveland police officer.
The resolution was spurred by calls from Rice’s family and four members of Ohio’s Democratic congressional delegation who sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for the civil rights investigation to be reopened immediately. The Rice family requested the DOJ to reopen the case on April 14.
Sen. Sherrod Brown and Reps. Tim Ryan, Joyce Beatty and Marcy Kaptur signed a letter dated April 23.
“The DOJ’s investigation into the officer that killed Tamir was not completed by the end of President Obama’s term, and the Trump Administration abruptly closed the investigation in 2020, providing very little insight or information about the process,” the letter reads. “Justice delayed is justice denied, and accountability for Tamir Rice’s death has been delayed for more than six years. Therefore, we strongly support the request of Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, that DOJ reopen its investigation into her son’s case.”
The previous DOJ probe looked at whether “a law enforcement officer acted willfully to deprive an individual of a federally protected right. The right implicated in this matter is the Fourth Amendment right to be free from an unreasonable seizure.”
The Cleveland City Council resolution was introduced last week by Councilman Kevin Conwell, who blamed the Trump administration for dropping the civil rights investigation in December 2020.
“I am going to say why he closed it, because he’s an African American male and he didn’t care about him,” Conwell said. “Someone must care about Tamir Rice. It’s our duty to care about Tamir Rice.”
On Nov. 22, 2014, Rice was playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland. He was shot and killed by Officer Timothy Loehmann seconds after Loehmann and his partner, Officer Frank Garmback, arrived. The officers had been dispatched to the recreation center after a man drinking beer and waiting for a bus called 911 to report that a “guy” was pointing a gun at people. The caller told a 911 dispatcher that it was probably a juvenile and the gun might be “fake,” though that was never relayed to the officers.
