Clifford Pinkney

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney announced Tuesday that the majority of the investigation into the Cleveland police shooting of Tamir Rice has been completed.

(Cory Shaffer, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- While the investigation into the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice at the hands of a Cleveland police nears an end, Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney refuses to set a deadline, despite claims from the boy's family that investigators are dragging their feet.

"While it would be politically expedient to impose an arbitrary deadline, for the sake of the integrity of this investigation, I am not willing to do that," Sheriff Clifford Pinkney said Tuesday. "Of course that does not mean that this investigation should drag out beyond what is reasonable."

Pinkney twice called Tamir's death "tragic" during the four-minute press conference held more than a week after Rice's mother made critical statements about the nearly six-month investigation into her son's death. Her plea came after the swift indictment of six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of a man in their custody.

Pinkney said his investigators still have more evidence to gather in the Nov. 22 shooting, but a majority of the work is finished.

Rice's family members who attended the press conference were not satisfied with Pinkney's remarks, shouting at the newly appointed sheriff as he walked out of The Blue Room at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center.

"There was no update," Latonya Goldsby, who described herself as Tamir's cousin, told reporters after the briefing. "If you were going to update, you would be announcing that charges have been filed and we were going to pick these officers up."

In lieu of taking questions from reporters or discussing any details of what investigators have found, Pinkney used the briefing to outline what investigators have done since the department agreed to take over the case from Cleveland police on Jan. 2.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office removed so-called Garrity statements -- legally protected statements made by police officers to investigators -- from the police department's investigative file and handed the file over to sheriff's investigators Feb. 13.

Since then, deputies have reviewed thousands of pages of documents and interviewed witnesses of the shooting. They've also reviewed all surveillance footage from the area around the Cudell Recreation Center where the shooting took place. Investigators also coordinated with the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigations to take 3D measurements of the park.

"What is reasonable is that all parties involved know that my department is conducting a fair, impartial and thorough investigation, one that leaves zero stones unturned before we turn it over to County Prosecutor Tim McGinty," Pinkney said.

McGinty will present the investigative findings to a grand jury, which will decide whether officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback should be charged.

That process is likely to take months, leaving Goldsby and Tamir's family waiting for what they say is "justice."

Goldsby said Tamir's family members found out about the press briefing Monday evening through news outlets.

"I feel so disgusted with the city of Cleveland for not showing some type of compassion," Goldsby said. "We have had to bury a 12-year-old kid. A 12-year-old child. Nobody understands that. I'm asking for the mayor and for the sheriff to show us some transparency."