CLEVELAND, Ohio – Police in Cleveland say that today they will be releasing surveillance video of an officer shooting to death a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a replica gun.
Tamir Rice was shot Saturday by an officer responding to a call about someone with a gun near a playground.
Police say the boy’s airsoft gun looked like a real firearm and was missing an orange safety indicator.
The attorneys for Tamir’s parents have called for the public release of the video.
Several hundred people temporarily blocked traffic in downtown Cleveland Tuesday while demonstrating in support of the boy. Protesters sat in a major intersection, marched past city hall and down an exit ramp to block a busy freeway. Police observed but didn’t take action against the protesters, who chanted phrases such as “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
The demonstration came as people across the country protested a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.