Situation Tense in Cleveland in Aftermath of Fatal Police Shooting of Boy on Saturday

The aftermath of the fatal police shooting of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy, Tamir Rice, Saturday afternoon coincided with international attention on whether a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, would indict a police officer for the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager Aug. 9. The grand jury ended up not indicting the police officer, sparking protests in Cleveland and elsewhere in Ohio and the nation.

The weekend shooting of Tamir Rice added a local element to the national powder keg.

Rice passed away early Sunday at a Cleveland hospital after being shot by a police officer Saturday. According to a Northeast Ohio Media Group report, the youth was shot about 3:30 p.m. at a recreation center in the city. Police said Rice was holding a airsoft pellet gun at the time, but its tell-tale orange safety cap had been removed.

The NEOMG quoted Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson from a press conference on Monday, stating: “What matters to me is this happened to a 12-year-old boy, and it happened in Cleveland.”

The press event reportedly was packed with media outlets from around the nation and world.

The NEOMG report capsulized the tumult over Saturday’s shooting of Rice:

“The shooting resulted in headlines from around the world, scrutiny from an attorney for the boy’s family, the ire of politicians and the wrath of Internet ‘hacktivists’ (who successfully shut down the city of Cleveland’s website early Monday).

Saturday’s shooting occurred at the Cudell Recreation Center on West Boulevard in the western part of Cleveland.

Officers reportedly responded to the center after receiving a report of a “male threatening people with a gun,” police said in the NEOMG report. However officers weren’t informed the male didn’t have a real gun, according to an early report, even though the person who initially called police had told dispatchers that he thought the gun was “fake.”

The police account reported that the officers watched the boy place what looked like a handgun into the waistband of his pants. After police ordered him to put his hands up, he pulled the gun out, and that’s when officers fired two shots, according to the police account. At least one struck him in the stomach.

It wasn’t till after the shooting, according to police, that they realized Rice had been carrying an airsoft pellet pistol, similar to a BB gun.

A probe by the Cleveland Police Department’s Use of Deadly Force Investigation Team could take up to three months.

A family-provided photo of Tamir Rice.