Expert: Tamir Rice Had Hands in Pockets When Shot by Cop

A 12-year-old boy killed by Cleveland police last year had his hands in his pockets when he was shot and wasn't reaching for the pellet gun he was carrying, according to an expert hired by the boy's family to review a frame-by-frame video of the deadly encounter. Tamir Rice did not have enough time to remove his hands from his pockets before being shot and his hands were not visible to the officer, according to the report released late Friday night by attorneys for Tamir's family. The new report and two others from experts already used by the family are the latest analysis of evidence to be released as a grand jury considers whether to bring charges against the officers in Tamir's death.

The boy was shot after authorities received a report of a man pointing and waving a gun outside a recreation center in November 2014. The rookie officer who fired the fatal shots, Timothy Loehmann, told investigators he repeatedly ordered the boy to "show me your hands" then saw him pulling a weapon from his waistband before opening fire. It turned out Tamir was carrying a nonlethal, Airsoft-type gun that shoots plastic pellets when Loehmann shot him twice outside the rec center. Tamir died a day later. Previous reports concluded that Loehmann shot Tamir within two seconds of opening his car door. The new analysis determined it happened even faster, within less than a second, according to the review by California-based shooting reconstruction expert Jesse Wobrock. (More Tamir Rice stories.)