Video released of cop shooting 12-year-old

Cleveland officials on Wednesday released surveillance video showing the Saturday shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who police thought was brandishing a weapon. He died in a hospital Sunday from a gunshot wound.

The edited video shows a person, whose image is blurred, moving down a sidewalk and out of frame at a snowy park, then the boy pointing a gun in the same direction. Rice is later seen standing under a park gazebo when a police car pulls up, both officers exiting the car and one apparently firing on the boy within seconds. 

{mosads}Police identified the officers as Timothy Loehmann, 26, and Frank Garmback, 46, who thought they were on a “gun run,” Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said, according to NBC News. Loehmann reportedly fired the shot. Both are on leave.

The officer who pulled the trigger was a rookie, Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association president Jeffrey Follmer said, according to a local media report.

A 911 caller repeatedly said the gun was “probably fake” and “probably a juvenile,” according to audio police released late Saturday. Follmer said the caller’s doubts were not passed on to the responding officers.

Rice died from a gunshot wound to the torso Sunday. His parents on Tuesday requested video of the shooting be released. Police Chief Calvin Williams said the family had seen the video and wanted it released, according to NBC.

The case will be sent to a county grand jury, according to Reuters.

“This is not an effort to exonerate, it’s not an effort to show the public that anybody did anything wrong. This is a tragic event,” Tomba said, according to NBC.

The news comes just days after a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., decided not to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in the shooting death of Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, sparking protests across the country, including Cleveland.