“Due to the corrupt system, I have a dead child. I felt as if breath has been taken out of my body once again,” she told MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Saturday. “It’s a struggle.”
Rookie patrolman Timothy Loehman shot Rice on Nov. 22, 2014 near a Cleveland recreation center. Rice, who had been playing with a toy pellet gun, died moments later. Loeheman said he believed the young boy to be a man in his 20s and claims he thought the gun was real. Both Loehman, and veteran officer Frank Garmback who was also at the scene, said they yelled at Rice to “show me your hands,” but surveillance footage shows the child was shot less than two seconds after officers arrived.
On Monday, after a year-long deliberation, a grand jury declined to indict both of the officers on criminal charges. The decision sparked protests, with activists speaking out against a system that has consistently failed to deliver justice in police killings of black people — and often blames them for their own deaths.
“He was my bright and shining star,” Rice’s mother said of her son in the MSNBC interview, before going on to dismantle some of the other dangerous misperceptions about black people.
Article Appeared @http://blackbluedog.com/2016/01/news/tamir-rices-mother-calls-out-corrupt-criminal-justice-system/