US police officers shot dead a 12-year-old black boy carrying a replica gun within seconds of their patrol car arriving on the scene, a surveillance video released Wednesday showed.
The sudden end to the incident
has stoked anger at police tactics in the United States, in the wake of
rioting triggered by a decision not to prosecute a white officer who
killed an unarmed black teenager.
Tamir
Rice died in hospital in the US city of Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday when
two police officers, responding to a 911 emergency call, confronted him
in a city park.
The footage
shows Rice walking on a sidewalk playing with the toy, at one point
aiming the replica weapon at a passerby, before sitting in a park
gazebo.
A patrol car pulls up
and an officer emerges from passenger side of the vehicle with his gun
drawn, immediately shooting Rice as he walks toward the car.
Despite
the short duration of the incident, Cleveland officials said Rice had
ignored police orders to raise his arms and that the youngster had
reached for his for his waist before he was shot.
"Three commands were given to put up his hands," deputy police chief Edward Tomba told reporters.
Cleveland
police also released audio from a 911 call placed before officers
arrived from a man saying a person that was probably a juvenile was
holding a gun that he suspected was a toy.
"There's a guy with a pistol," the caller said. "It's probably fake but he's pointing it at everybody."
However,
the dispatcher did not tell the officers that the gun was possibly a
toy nor that the suspect was a youth, the tape showed.
Cleveland police identified the officer who killed Rice as 26-year-old Timothy Loehman, who is white.
Loehman, who joined the force in
March, and the other officer driving the car in the video are on
administrative leave while the shooting is being investigated.
Both officers have been questioned, but their statements will not be released, according to Tomba.
- 'Tragic effort' -
Tomba said the police video was
released at the request of Rice's family, but that it was "not an effort
to exonerate" the officers.
"This is a tragic effort where a young member of community lost his life," he said.
The incident sparked protests Tuesday in Cleveland, where about 200 peaceful demonstrators blocked major roads during rush hour.
Cleveland's
chief of police Calvin Williams defended the conduct of the officer who
killed Rice, saying Monday "there is no time that a Cleveland police
officer wants to go out and shoot a kid, period."
The
video was released in the wake of protests over another racially
charged killing in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, where a white
officer shot dead a black unarmed teenager in August.
That
shooting, in a majority black community with an overwhelmingly white
police force and city council, prompted a national debate about race and
law enforcement.
On Monday, a
grand jury decided not to indict officer Darren Wilson over Michael
Brown's killing, sparking two nights of riots in Ferguson and nationwide
demonstrations in several US cities on Tuesday.
Civil
rights firebrand Al Sharpton said the Brown case renewed a fight for
greater police accountability, and said protests would be staged
nationwide on Saturday.
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