The death of a 12-year-old Cleveland, Ohio, boy who was shot and killed by police last month has been ruled a homicide, officials said Friday.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Tamir Rice died from a "gunshot wound of the torso with injuries of major vessel, intestines and pelvis," according to medical documents obtained by CNN.
Rice was killed Nov. 22 after Cleveland officer Timothy Loehmann mistook the toy gun he was holding to be a real gun and open fired, authorities said. Police arrived on the scene at a park outside a recreation center after receiving a 911 call from someone saying a black male, likely "a juvenile" was pointing a fake-looking "pistol" at people, CNN reported.
Dispatch sent Loehmann and a partner to the scene, but it seems the dispatcher didn't tell the officers about the caller saying the gun looked fake and that the male was likely a child.
Rice was shot two seconds after Loehmann got out of the police vehicle. The boy died the next day.
"It is my opinion that Tamir E. Rice, a 12-year-old black adolescent male, died as a result of a gunshot wound to the abdomen which injured his inferior vena cava, intestines, and pelvis," Medical Examiner Thomas P. Gilson wrote according to The Washington Post.
Police said Loehmann, who is currently on paid leave, thought the air gun Rice was reaching for was a real firearm and that the toy did not have an orange tip to indicate it was fake. Samaria Rice, the child's mother, said she never allowed her son to play with toy guns. The one he had came from his friend, the mother said according to CNN.
The victim's death comes during a time race relations in America have been at the forefront of national headlines following a string of police killings of unarmed black males. Protests have erupted across the nation, from New York City to Berkeley, California, and even across the ocean to London.
Rice's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, who was also placed on paid leave pending an investigation.
