The Department of Justice has decided to close the civil rights investigation into the killing of Tamir Rice, without bringing charges.
Rice, a 12-year-old black youth, was carrying a pellet gun when he was shot by a White Cleveland Police officer in 2014.
The DOJ announced that career prosecutors reviewing the federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against the Cleveland Police officers involved in the incident, Fox News reports.
Investigators said the pellet gun brandished by Rice was "visually virtually indistinguishable from a real .45 Colt semiautomatic pistol." (Photo: DOJ)
The child had been seen throughout the day at the Cudell Park Recreation Center, waving the weapon around and allegedly pointing it at more than one person, according to the DOJ.
Eventually, someone called 911 to report a "guy with a pistol" pointing it at people visiting the playground, according to the DOJ. But the caller also described the person with the gun as "probably a juvenile" and said that the object in his hand was "probably fake."
The dispatcher sent out a high-priority call, but responding officers were not told about the callers’ reservations about Tamir’s likely age and that the gun may have been a toy, according to investigators.
Although he was just 12, Tamir was 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighed 195 pounds, authorities said.
"The officers believed that they were responding to a playground where a grown man was brandishing a real gun at individuals, presumably including children," the DOJ said.
One of the officers was fired after the shooting. Another was suspended.
