nbcnews | The city of Cleveland claims the
death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice at the hands of a police officer and the
"losses" suffered by his family were a result of the boy's and his
family's own actions that day. The city's denial of any wrongdoing was
filed Friday in response to a wrongful death lawsuit brought by lawyers
for the Rice family last month.
The city wrote that
Tamir's injuries were caused by him failing to "exercise due care." In
addition, the complaints brought on behalf of Tamir's sister and mother
were also "directly caused by their own acts" — not the officers
involved, the response said.
Tamir was fatally shot on Nov. 22 by
Cleveland rookie cop Timothy Loehmann, who with his partner, Frank
Garmback, were called to a recreation center where Tamir was holding a
pellet gun. Police responding to the scene initially believed the pellet
gun, which did not have an orange tip identifying it as a replica, was
real. Loehmann fired on Tamir within less than two seconds of arriving,
surveillance footage shows, and the boy died in the hospital the next
day.
The Rice family filed an 8-page wrongful death suit against the two officers and the city of Cleveland in December. But after retaining a new legal team, including high-profile civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, the family filed an amended 65-page suit against the same defendants, which brought at least 27 allegations against the city and the officers.
