CLEVELAND — The police officer who fatally shot a 12-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun fired within 1½ to two seconds of pulling up in his cruiser, police said Wednesday.
During those few moments, he ordered the youngster three times to put up his hands, they said.
The city released a surveillance video that shows the shooting of Tamir Rice, who was carrying an airsoft gun that shoots nonlethal plastic pellets.
Much of the footage shows what appears to be a bored kid alone in a park on an unseasonably warm November afternoon. Rice is seen pacing, occasionally extending his right arm with what appears to be a gun in his hand, talking on a cellphone, and sitting at a picnic table with his head resting on his arms.
The patrol officer who shot Rice was identified Wednesday as Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old rookie who began his career in Cleveland on March 3.