Police officers have shot and killed Tamir Rice, a 12 year old boy who had pulled a replica gun on park goers on Saturday. Tamir Rice died on Sunday in the hospital as a result of the two shots police officers have fired at him. The officers were responding to a 911 call reporting a boy holding a fake gun in a public park in Cleveland. The 911 caller said that they had repeatedly told dispatchers that they suspected that Tamir was not armed with a real gun, but with a replica or fake one.
Police officers got to the scene and saw that Tamir Rice had picked up a gun from a table in the park and placed it in the back of his pants. When they confronted the boy, he grabbed for the gun and police started firing shots, seemingly unaware that the gun was fake. The 911 caller had alerted dispatchers that they were almost entirely convinced that the gun was fake, but they were bothered by the fact that everybody in the park was feeling distressed because of Tamir.
The responding police officers said that they were not informed by dispatchers that there was a suspicion that the gun Tamir was carrying was not a real one. Witnesses say that the gun in the boy’s hands was missing the safety indicator usually placed on replica guns, and that’s why police might have thought that it was an actual firearm. In any case, the FBI and police department are investigating the fatal shoot-out, while the two responding police officers where placed on administrative leave. Witnesses say that the boy didn’t make any threats when police were approaching him, instead reaching for his replica gun when told to raise his hands in the air.
The incident is dubious to say the least. It is tragic that a small boy had to lose his life because of a replica gun police didn’t know about. At the same time, we have to ask ourselves why the replica didn’t have the orange safety indicator. While children usually try to appear tough these days, it is hard to understand why he would carry a replica so similar to a real gun that police can even mistake it. In any case, police investigations on the case are underway. The family of Tamir Rice said that police would have better used a taser or another non-lethal weapon, at least.