Denver Deputy District Attorney S. Lamar Sims told the jury reviewing the police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice that the shooting was “reasonable.”

The Cleveland police officer who gunned down and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice won’t be indicted for murder, thanks in part to grand jury testimony from Denver’s Senior Deputy District Attorney S. Lamar Sims.

Sims told the jury reviewing the case that the killing of the child holding a pellet gun was “reasonable.”

Sims wasn’t testifying as a paid representative of the Denver District Attorney’s office, and he would not comment to The Colorado Independent about the Grand Jury investigation.

He also had no comment on whether or how much he was paid for his expert opinions.

Sims’ assessment that an officer killing a 12-year-old was reasonable isn’t exactly a shocker. After all, he works for an office that has not once, in over a decade, criminally prosecuted a killer cop — a series of decisions that has led to public outrage and even a recall-attempt on his boss, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Even when police killed unarmed 17-year-old Jessica Hernandez earlier this year, the Denver DA’s office, with Sims leading the review, deemed it “justified.” Also under Sims’ review, the office deemed sheriff’s deputies 2010 killing of Marvin Booker — a frail, homeless street preacher who presented no physical threat — “justified.”

The list of cases Sims has found justifiable goes on and on.

In the eyes of Cleveland officials defending that city in the Rice killing, Sims’ long record of deciding that police-killings are “reasonable” presumably helped qualify him as an expert witness — a hired gun who helped the officer walk free.

Photo credit: Seluryar, Creative Commons, Flickr.