Samaria Rice, the mother of a 12-year-old boy who had a fake gun when he was shot and killed by police at a city recreation center in Cleveland, has hired an attorney to investigate the shooting.
Tamir Rice died at MetroHealth Medical Center Sunday from gunshot wounds, a hospital spokesperson confirmed to
WOIO-TV. He was shot in the stomach by an officer after police confronted him at the recreation center. The TV station reported that Samaria Rice's attorney Timothy Kucharski will speak for the family in the future.
Cleveland Police continued to investigate the Saturday afternoon shooting outside of the Cudell Rec Center.
According to The New York Times, officers responded to a report of a boy brandishing a handgun on a playground. When they confronted Rice, they ordered him to put his hands in the air. Officers claimed the boy instead reached for his waistband where the gun was located and an officer fired two shots, striking the boy in the abdomen.
The boy underwent surgery but his condition worsened from Saturday night to Sunday when he was pronounced dead.
"There was no verbal or no confrontation," Cleveland deputy police chief Ed Tomba said at a news conference. In describing the interaction between the officers and the boy, he said Rice never pointed the gun at officers or threatened them, noted the Times.
Police told WOIO-TV the boy had an "airsoft" type replica gun, which looks like a semi-automatic pistol, but Samaria Rice told the television station her son didn't have access to such a toy at home and does not know where he got it.
Kucharski told Cleveland's
Plain Dealer that the family will conduct their own investigation into the shooting.
"The family is devastated," Kucharski told the newspaper. "I would go as far to say inconsolable. She woke up yesterday with a son. Today, she woke up without a son."
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