In Tamir Rice Case, Many Errors by Cleveland Police, Then a Fatal One

2015/1/22-It began with a swap: one boyā€™s cellphone for anotherā€™s replicaĀ of a Colt pistol.Ā One of the boys went to play in a nearby park, striking poses with theĀ lifelike, airsoftĀ­style gun, which fired plastic pellets. He threw a snowball,Ā settled down at a picnic table and flopped his head onto his arms in a perfectĀ assertion of preteen ennui, a grainy security video shows.

Then, with the gun tucked away, he walked to the edge of the gazebo. HeĀ might have been wandering aimlessly, or he might have been attracted by theĀ sight of a squad car barreling across the lawn.Ā Seconds later, the boy lay dying from a police officerā€™s bullet. ā€œShots fired,Ā male down,ā€ one of the officers in the car called across his radio. ā€œBlack male,Ā maybe 20, black revolver, black handgun by him. Send E.M.S. this way, and aĀ roadblock.ā€
But the boy, Tamir Rice, was only 12. Now, with the county sheriffā€™s officeĀ reviewing the shooting, interviews and recently released video and policeĀ records show how a series of mis-communications, tactical errors andĀ institutional failures by the Cleveland police cascaded into one irreversibleĀ mistake.
And in death last November, Tamir joined Michael Brown, a teenagerĀ fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner, a StatenĀ Island man who died after being placed in a choke-hold by an officer, asĀ touchstones for protests of police violence against unarmed black peopleĀ across the nation. Their names were chanted by demonstrators again onĀ Monday in Martin Luther King Jr. Day marches.Ā Because of multiple layers in Clevelandā€™s 911 system, crucial information
from the initial call about ā€œa guy in here with a pistolā€ was never relayed to theĀ responding police officers, including the callerā€™s caveats that the gun wasĀ ā€œprobably fakeā€ and that the wielder was ā€œprobably a juvenile.ā€Ā What the officers, Frank Garmback and his rookie partner, TimĀ Loehmann, did hear from a dispatcher was, ā€œWe have a Code 1,ā€ theĀ departmentā€™s highest level of urgency.
When the officers raced into action, they took a shortcut that pointed theirĀ squad car straight into the park, pulling up so close to Tamir that it made itĀ difficult to take cover, or to use verbal persuasion or other tactics suggested byĀ the departmentā€™s useĀ­ofĀ­force policy.Ā Within two seconds of the carā€™s arrival, Officer Loehmann shot Tamir inĀ the abdomen from pointĀ­blank range, raising doubts that he could haveĀ warned the boy three times to raise his hands, as the police later claimed.Ā And when Tamirā€™s 14Ā­ yearĀ­old sister came running up minutes later, theĀ officers, who are white, tackled her to the ground and put her in handcuffs,Ā intensifying later public outrage about the boyā€™s death.

When his distraughtĀ mother arrived, the officers also threatened to arrest her unless she calmedĀ down, the mother, Samaria Rice, said.Ā Officers Garmback and Loehmann did not check Tamirā€™s vital signs orĀ perform first aid in the minutes after he was shot. But Officer GarmbackĀ frantically requested an emergency medical team at least seven times, urgingĀ the dispatcher to ā€œstep it upā€ and to send medical workers from a fire station aĀ block away. It would be eight minutes before they arrived.Ā The shooting fit into a broader history of dysfunction at the ClevelandĀ Division of Police.

Two weeks after Tamirā€™s death, the Justice DepartmentĀ released a scathing report accusing the department of a pattern of excessiveĀ force for which officers were rarely disciplined, and pressed the department toĀ accept a federal monitor. Just a year before, in 2013, an investigation by theĀ state attorney general found ā€œsystemic failureā€ in the department.Ā It also highlighted shortcomings in the departmentā€™s vetting process forĀ recruits. Police records show that Officer Loehmann was hired without aĀ review of his file at a previous department, where he resigned after suffering aĀ ā€œdangerous loss of composureā€ during firearms training.Ā The Cleveland police department and mayorā€™s office declined to commentĀ for this article.

For Cleveland residents, the shooting highlighted another longstandingĀ problem: The departmentā€™s community policing programs had been whittledĀ down to a token effort, a result of cuts a decade earlier that might well haveĀ made a lifeĀ­orĀ­death difference to Tamir. A sign on a telephone pole yardsĀ from where he was shot down still advertises a police administration in theĀ nearby recreation center where he played basketball. The station is long gone.Ā ā€œIf there was one there,ā€ Councilman Jeffrey Johnson said, ā€œhe would haveĀ known Tamir, because Tamir was a regular, and he would have heard the callĀ and gone out there and said, ā€˜Tamir, what are you doing?ā€™ā€
A RealĀ­-Looking ToyĀ 

Before leaving his motherā€™s apartment on that gray Saturday, Nov. 22,Ā Tamir went through one of her drawers to find a plaything: her cellphone.

He was known as a boisterous, friendly boy. At school, where he had aĀ good attendance record, Tamir was often in trouble, classmates said, mainlyĀ for his pranks: He was deft with a whoopee cushion and liked to reseal hisĀ empty milk carton to tempt the unsuspecting.

ā€œHe was bad, but like in a funny way,ā€ said DeovauntĆ© Hotstetter, a 10Ā­Ā yearĀ­old schoolmate. ā€œI canā€™t remember what was so funny, but there was
cussing in it.ā€

Deonte Goldsby, 21, a relative, said Tamir, the youngest of four, wouldĀ take care of his smaller cousins at family gatherings, chasing them or playingĀ with their action figures and dolls. With adults, he was wellĀ­mannered, usingĀ maā€™am and sir and offering to fetch sodas from the refrigerator.

Cudell Commons, where Tamir was shot, was the geographic center of hisĀ daily life. The park is flanked on one side by the recreation center where Tamir,Ā who stood 5Ā­footĀ­7, played basketball, boasting, ā€œYou canā€™t check me!ā€ when heĀ scored.Ā On the other side stood his school, Marion C. Seltzer Elementary,Ā where the calendar is printed in five languages and the bulletin boards teachĀ children to distinguish stereotypes from reality.

An older friend told Tamir that he could take the cellphone, whose serviceĀ was locked, to a store and make it work, Tamirā€™s mother said. Tamir asked if heĀ could hold the friendā€™s airsoft pistol while he was gone. He seemed delighted inĀ the novelty of the replica.

ā€œHis mother didnā€™t allow him around guns whatsoever, toy guns, waterĀ guns,ā€ Mr. Goldsby said. ā€œShe knows about things like this. She knows thatĀ somebody would mistake it for a real gun.ā€
In this case, the replica was a few years old, and the orange safety tip,Ā intended to distinguish it from a pistol that fired real bullets, had beenĀ removed or had fallen off. Just as his mother had worried, Tamir wound up inĀ the park waving what looked very much like a real weapon.

A Lifelong Police Interest
The 911 caller was calm, pausing to exchange pleasantries with theĀ dispatcher before getting to the point: A male in Cudell Commons was pointingĀ a pistol at people and scaring them. The gun was ā€œprobably fake,ā€ he said twice
before signing off, and its wielder was ā€œprobably a juvenile.ā€

Officer Garmback, 46, who had joined the force in 2008, was at a nearbyĀ church when the call came. With him was his partner, Officer Loehmann, 26,Ā hired just eight months before.Ā Officer Loehmann had grown up in Parma, a largely white suburb ofĀ Cleveland, but he commuted 30 minutes to an allĀ­male, Roman Catholic highĀ school on the cityā€™s east side, Benedictine, where many of the students wereĀ minorities.
People who knew Officer Loehmann there recalled him as quiet andĀ serious, active in the band and the German Club. The Rev. Gerard Gonda, theĀ schoolā€™s president, said Mr. Loehmann had a solid record at Benedictine,Ā where as a junior he was in Father Gondaā€™s theology class. ā€œHe had a very lowkeyĀ personality, and I would say kind of a gentle personality,ā€ Father GondaĀ said.
The Rev. Anselm Zupka, who taught Officer Loehmann at Benedictine andĀ was also his confirmation sponsor at his local parish, said ā€œTimmyā€ hadĀ embraced his Catholicism to an extent that Father Zupka suggested to him thatĀ he might want to enter the monastery.

But the teenager had other ideas. ā€œHe was always interested in policeĀ work, because thatā€™s what his father did,ā€ Father Gonda said.Ā Officer Loehmann had long wanted to emulate his father, Frederic, whoĀ served in the New York Police Department for 20 years before becoming aĀ federal marshal. So in 2011, he earned a bachelorā€™s degree in criminology andĀ sociology from Cleveland State University, according to his personnel file, andĀ the next year, he went to work for the police in Independence, Ohio.
But there, according to police records, he had emotional problems relatedĀ to a girlfriend. At a shooting range, he was ā€œdistracted and weepy,ā€ aĀ supervisor said. One of his supervisors concluded that Officer LoehmannĀ ā€œwould not be able to substantially cope, or make good decisions,ā€ duringĀ stressful situations.

After six months, the department allowed him to resign.Ā Officer Loehmann stayed in the Cleveland area, where he took privateĀ security jobs. He continued to apply for local law enforcement jobs but was notĀ hired until the Cleveland police gave him a chance, in March 2014.

TheĀ department never reviewed his Independence personnel file.Ā Officer Loehmann did well, graduating from the Cleveland PoliceĀ Academy with a score of 98.8. He was assigned to a district on Clevelandā€™s westĀ side, which included the poor, blighted neighborhood around CudellĀ Commons.
Episodes of Abuse
By the time Officer Loehmann was hired, the department was alreadyĀ struggling with a host of problems that had begun at least a decade before.
In 2004, city leaders laid off 250 officers to help close a budget gap. ThatĀ trimmed the force 15 percent, to about 1,500 officers, seriously hurtingĀ community policing and closing miniĀ­stations.

Over the next two years, the cityā€™s violent crime rate leapt by double digits.Ā It has since declined from that peak, but the city is still more violent than itĀ was in 2004, according to F.B.I. data, even as violent crime has continued toĀ drop across Ohio and the country.

As the police department was shrinking, it came under increasingĀ criticism for excessive use of force. The Justice Department began anĀ investigation prompted by police shootings that led to an agreement in 2004Ā calling for the city to tighten its guidelines for the use of force and to improveĀ its documentation of those incidents.

But many reforms were not maintained,Ā according to the recent Justice Department report.Ā Episodes of abuse continued to surface. In 2011, a helicopter videoĀ captured police officers kicking Edward Henderson in the head even though heĀ was spreadĀ­eagled on the ground.

None of the officers admitted toĀ wrongdoing, and none were fired, though the video showed them ā€œkicking hisĀ head like a football,ā€ said David Malik, a prominent civil rights lawyer whoĀ won a $600,000 settlement for Mr. Henderson, who suffered a broken facialĀ bone.
Mr. Malik said the cityā€™s discipline and arbitration system heavily favoredĀ officers, making it difficult to punish misconduct. ā€œItā€™s a culture of noĀ consequences,ā€ said Mr. Malik, who has filed or investigated potential lawsuitsĀ against the Cleveland police on more than 100 occasions.
Nearly two years after the assault on Mr. Henderson, more than 60 policeĀ cruisers and one-Ā­third of the cityā€™s on Ā­duty force engaged in a highĀ­speed chaseĀ after officers mistook a carā€™s backfiring for gunfire. It ended when officersĀ killed the two unarmed occupants by firing 137 rounds into their vehicle.Ā The episode prompted an investigation by the stateā€™s attorney general,Ā Mike DeWine, a Republican, that found systemic breakdowns inĀ communication and supervision in the department.
ā€œWhen everybody violates the rules,ā€ Mr. DeWine said in an interview,Ā ā€œthe cops are not the problem. Youā€™ve got a culture problem, youā€™ve got aĀ command and control problem, youā€™ve got a management problem, which
goes way past those guys.ā€
The deadly chase also spurred calls for a new Justice DepartmentĀ investigation. Released in December, that study found a pattern of excessiveĀ force, suggesting that the police were often hostile with residents and wereĀ rarely held accountable for misconduct.Ā ā€œOfficers use excessive force against individuals who are in mental healthĀ crisis or who may be unable to understand or comply with officersā€™ commands,Ā including when the individual is not suspected of having committed any crimeĀ at all,ā€ the report said.
Cleveland and the Justice Department have agreed to work toward aĀ consent decree that would tighten useĀ­ofĀ­force policies and subject theĀ department to oversight by a monitor.Ā Critics of the force cite hiring standards that require only a high schoolĀ diploma or equivalent at a time when many bigĀ­city departments require someĀ college, and its failure to adequately analyze useĀ­ofĀ­force and arrest data inĀ ways that have become standard at many departments.
Detective Steve Loomis, the president of the largest local police union,Ā disputed the idea that the system for resolving complaints against officersĀ favored the police. But he acknowledged problems in the department,Ā including what he said was understaffing and low compensation that forceĀ many officers to take second jobs to make ends meet.
Waiting for Answers
In the weeks since Tamirā€™s death, the city and its police department haveĀ come under mounting pressure to explain not only the shooting, but also itsĀ aftermath, with the officers failing to provide first aid as Tamir lay bleeding.Ā Not until an F.B.I. agent who happened to be nearby arrived four minutes afterĀ the shooting did anyone tend to the boy.
Though the departmentā€™s useĀ­ofĀ­force policy requires officers to ā€œobtainĀ necessary medical assistanceā€ for injured people, it does not explicitly call forĀ them to perform first aid. Walter Madison, a lawyer for Tamirā€™s mother, said itĀ would be ludicrous to believe that officers would not immediately perform firstĀ aid on a wounded comrade.
Henry Hilow, a lawyer representing Officer Loehmann, said the officersĀ had followed protocol by calling for E.M.S., saying, ā€œThey were doing the bestĀ they could to get medical attentionā€ for Tamir. He also defended the officersā€™Ā tactics in the moments before the shooting, saying they had positioned theirĀ cruiser to prevent Tamir from running into the recreation center, where theyĀ thought he might endanger people. They tried to stop farther away, but the carĀ skidded, Mr. Hilow said.

Echoing the defense of the police department after the shooting, Mr.Ā Hilow also said the officers had seen Tamir pull the pellet gun out of hisĀ waistband moments before Officer Loehmann shot him, an account that isĀ difficult to verify with the lowĀ­quality security video. He said the officers hadĀ shouted at Tamir to drop the gun and show his hands before their squad carĀ came to a stop.
The department has begun taking some steps to address its problems. ItĀ says it will review personnel files of all new hires. A city inquiry may alsoĀ examine the dispatch system, in which, Detective Loomis said, the person whoĀ took the 911 call did not relay the callerā€™s caveats to the dispatcher.

Yet Mayor Frank G. Jackson, a Democrat in his third term, has insistedĀ there is no ā€œsystemic failureā€ in the department, and has steadfastly resistedĀ calls for the resignation of two top advisers who oversaw the departmentĀ during the period studied by both the state and the Justice Department.

Ms. Rice, 38, is awaiting explanations, and an apology. ā€œNobody has comeĀ to knock on my door and told me what happened,ā€ she said. ā€œSomebody has toĀ be held accountable.ā€

 

Source: New York Times

Shalia Dewan & Richards A. Oppel Jr.Ā 

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