CLEVELAND – An attorney for the family of a 12-year-old black boy shot by a white police officer is blasting the head of a Cleveland police union who said the family of Tamir Rice should use money from a $6 million settlement to educate children about the dangers of handling real and replica firearms.
Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association president Steve Loomis released a statement Monday, hours after the city announced a settlement in a lawsuit over the death of Rice, who was shot dead by a white police officer while playing with a pellet gun.
Family attorney Subodh Chandra blasted Loomis’ response, saying his comments reflect “all that is wrong with Cleveland’s police division.”
An order filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland says the city will pay out $3 million this year and $3 million the next. There was no admission of wrongdoing in the settlement.
The head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio says settlements are “no substitute” for reforms the group thinks are needed in Cleveland.
“Until we see major reforms at all levels of the criminal justice system, people in Cleveland and across the country will continue to watch this same story unfold again and again,” said Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio.
The wrongful death settlement comes several months after a grand jury declined to indict the officers responsible for the November 2014 shooting of Rice.