Prosecutor brushes aside recommendation from Ohio judge to charge Cleveland police officer with murder and vows to proceed as planned with grand jury

A judge in Ohio said on Thursday he had found probable cause to charge a police officer with murder for the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year.

Judge Ronald Adrine of the Cleveland municipal court said there were grounds to prosecute officer Timothy Loehmann with murder, manslaughter, reckless homicide and negligent homicide.

Adrine also found there was probable cause for a charge of negligent homicide against officer Frank Garmback, Loehmann’s partner, who was present when Tamir was shot at a park on 22 November while holding a pellet gun.



Tamir Rice. Photograph: Facebook

The judge’s recommendation, however, was brushed aside by Timothy McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, who pledged to proceed as planned with having a grand jury decide on whether the officers should be charged.

“This case, as with all other fatal use of deadly force cases involving law enforcement officers, will go to the grand jury,” McGinty said in a statement. “That has been the policy of this office since I was elected. Ultimately, the grand jury decides whether police officers are charged or not charged.”

In a 10-page order, Judge Adrine wrote that after viewing surveillance video, which shows Tamir being shot dead within two seconds of Loehmann’s arrival, he was “still thunderstruck by how quickly this event turned deadly”.

The judge said Tamir was given “little if any time” to respond to any commands from the officers, that his arms were not raised, and that he made no “furtive movement”. Adrine wrote: “Literally, the entire encounter is over in an instant.”

Adrine noted that his role remained “advisory in nature” and that any charges must be brought by prosecutors for the city of Cleveland or Cuyahoga County.

However, Walter Madison, an attorney for Tamir’s family, said on Thursday that he knew of no legitimate impediment to a prosecution and that Loehmann and Garmback should be arrested and arraigned in court.



“We are very much relieved and it is a step towards procedural justice and people having access to their government,” Madison told the Guardian.

The judge’s finding followed community leaders taking advantage of a little-known law to appeal directly to the judge to commence a prosecution of the officer, as is permitted in Ohio and a few other states.



“State law does provide an avenue for a private citizen having knowledge of facts to initiate the criminal process,” Adrine wrote in his order.



Madison said the judge’s finding showed “the police are public servants and not the public’s master”.



In a statement issued through their attorneys, the Rice family said the eight community leaders who filed affidavits to the judge accusing the officers of murder had “provided a blueprint for the nation to follow in addressing many of the relationship problems between African Americans and law enforcement”.

Loehmann shot Tamir dead while responding to a 911 call claiming Tamir was pointing his pellet gun. The caller noted the gun was “probably fake”, though it is unclear if that information was shared with the officers.



Adrine noted in his order on Thursday that the video shows the officers’ patrol car was “still in the process of stopping when Tamir is shot”, that for four minutes “neither officer approaches Tamir as he lies wounded on the ground”, and that they physically restrained Tamir’s sister when she tried to reach him.

An investigation into the shooting by the Cuyahoga County sheriff’s office has been completed and handed to the office of McGinty, the county prosecutor.

Clifford Pinkney, the county sheriff, said his office had conducted an “extensive, thorough and unbiased investigation” based on thousands of documents, multiple interviews and reconstructions of the incident.



The decision to proceed with a grand jury in Tamir’s case has prompted anxiety among his family’s supporters, who argue that the format lacks transparency and favours police officers in controversial cases.

A grand jury in St Louis, Missouri, last year declined to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old in August. The following week, a grand jury in New York decided not to indict a police officer who caused the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, by placing him in a chokehold.

Earlier this year Barack Obama’s White House policing taskforce recommended that all fatalities caused by law enforcement officers be investigated by independent prosecutors to avoid potential conflicts of interest among local authorities.

Tamir Rice ruling Judge Ronald Adriane of the Cleveland municipal court said there were grounds to prosecute officer Timothy Loehmann with murder, manslaughter and reckless homicide.

While people demanding action on the Tamir Rice case had marched, disrupted traffic and shouted slogans outside the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland on Tuesday night, the mood was decidedly upbeat prior to game three of the basketball series. There was plenty of music and cheering by throngs dressed in LeBron James jerseys but no protest.

Edward Moore, a retired machinist who was in downtown Cleveland for the basketball festivities, said he was glad the judge took action in the case, “because there was a video of what happened, and for the life of me, I can’t understand why they haven’t finished their investigation and sent this case to the grand jury”.

An attorney who did not want his named used said the decision to arrest the Cleveland police officer was “just a lot of grandstanding” because he would still have to be indicted by the grand jury, and in the meantime would only spend a day or two behind bars before being released on bond. “It is just about making people feel better, not any real movement in this case.”

Outside the basketball arena Jim Chase, a marketing executive, said he was pleased with the ruling but added: “I don’t think people in Cleveland care about anything more than basketball tonight. We’ve been losing for a long time and we have a chance to win a championship. The real news can wait right now.”