Surveillance Video Caught Shooting of Cleveland Boy

But police have no plans to release it
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 24, 2014 12:00 PM CST
Surveillance Video Caught Shooting of Cleveland Boy
This undated photo provided by the family's attorney shows Tamir Rice.   (AP Photo/Courtesy Richardson & Kucharski Co., L.P.A.)

Cleveland authorities say they've got surveillance video of the confrontation Saturday night that ended with a rookie cop shooting a 12-year-old boy to death, reports CNN. It will be a big part of the police investigation into the Tamir Rice case, but as of now, there are no plans to make the video public. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said today that the youth had an air gun "indistinguishable from a real gun" when police arrived at a city recreation center. A caller had reported a man with a gun, but he also told the dispatcher that it might be a juvenile and that the gun might be fake. It's not clear whether that information got relayed to the responding officer, said another police official, reports the Plain Dealer.

"There's no time a Cleveland police officer wants to shoot a kid and that's how the officer feels," said Williams. The officer was about 10 feet away when he shot Tamir. Police have said the boy was reaching for the gun and disregarding orders to put his hands up. Still, the boy's father thinks police could have Tased his son rather than shooting him dead, and the hacker group Anonymous agrees. It shut down the city website this morning and criticized both the cop who shot Tamir and the city police department for a "lack of appropriate training," reports the Daily News. (More Tamir Rice stories.)

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