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Source: JIM WATSON / Getty

Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine, ruled Thursday that there is enough evidence to charge two white policeman in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old African American boy who was holding a pellet gun.  The probable cause that Judge Adrine found in the case means that rookie officer Timothy Loehmann could possibly be charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide or dereliction of duty in the November case.

Loehmann’s partner Frank Garmback if convicted could possibly be charged with reckless homicide or dereliction of duty as well.  On Thursday, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said that like all other fatal use-of-deadly-force cases involving law enforcement officers, this case will go to a grand jury.

Attorneys working with the activists acknowledged that, regardless of how a judge ruled on the affidavits, evidence would ultimately have to go to a grand jury for the case to proceed to trial. The activists used a section of state law that allows private citizens to file affidavits in court alleging a crime has occurred.

Ric Simmons, an Ohio State University law professor said in his opinion it was a “troubling precedent” for a judge to weigh in on a criminal case before the prosecutor has acted.  However, Tamir’s death has become part of a national outcry about minorities, especially black boys and men, dying while in police custody.

The judge wrote in his ruling that he watched the video captured by a surveillance camera several times and was “thunderstruck” by how quickly the encounter turned deadly. The video depicts Loehmann shooting Tamir in the abdomen within two seconds of a police cruiser (driven by Garmback) skidding to a stop near the boy.

The officers had responded to a 911 call reporting that a man was pointing and waving a gun at a playground outside a recreation center. The caller said the gun might not be real, but that information wasn’t relayed to the officers.

In defense of the officers, police officials have said Loehmann ordered Tamir three times to put up his hands before he shot the boy and officers had no way of knowing Tamir was carrying an airsoft gun that only looked like a real firearm.

 

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