CLEVELAND, Ohio - Rumors began swirling online Wednesday that Cleveland police charged Tamir Rice with aggravated menacing and inducing panic a week after he was shot and killed by an officer.

That's not entirely accurate.

"We don't charge dead people," Joe Frolik, a spokesman with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office said.

Police arrest people. They don't charge them. It's a confusing bit of semantics that also differs from state to state.

In Ohio, charges in misdemeanor cases are often directly filed by municipal court prosecutors. In felony cases, a prosecutor most often presents facts gathered by police to a grand jury. The grand jury decides what, if any, charges to hand up to the court.

The first story, written by the Daily Kos' Shaun King, is based on a police report filed a week after Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland police. That story has been revised to say police "wanted" to charge Rice. His piece was picked up by Raw Story and Esquire.

Northeast Ohio Media Group obtained the same incident report in March through a public records request. It lists the offenses of aggravated menacing and inducing panic.

The report was one of two generated by Cleveland police from the incident. The other report, created after Tamir's death, is titled "Dead body/suspected homicide/child fatality" and lists no offenses.

You can view the documents below.

The 12-year-old was shot and killed by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann outside the Cudell Recreation Center on the city's west side. A bystander called the police after seeing him wave around what looked like a pistol. The gun in question was an airsoft pellet gun, missing its distinctive orange tip.

The report lists the charges Rice might have faced had he not been killed.

Cleveland police Deputy Chief Joellen O'Neill said that an incident report listing all potential charges is created whenever police suspect a crime has been committed.

The Cleveland law department did not answer a call for comment, but Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson released a statement debunking the idea that Rice was charged.

"A rumor has been circulating that Tamir Rice was charged with a crime as a result of the incidents that transpired on 11/22/2014. That is false. The document that is being referred to is an incident report from that night. It is not an official charge sheet," the statement says.

Police reports list what Frolik calls "preliminary charges." While the report lists "charges," those are more of a suggestion from the officer as to what charges prosecutors might seek.

"In a perfect world we should come up with some different semantics, because it can be confusing," Frolik said.

Loehmann, on the other hand, may face charges in connection with the incident. His case is still being investigated by the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office.

Northeast Ohio Media Group reporters Brandon Blackwell and Cory Shaffer contributed to this story.