Protesters Demand Resignation of Prosecutor in Black Teen Case
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Protesters outside the home of the prosecutor in the Tamir Rice case demanded his resignation after officers were not charged in the boy's death.
Protesters late on Friday called for Tim McGinty's resignation since the announcement earlier this week.
In a peaceful protest Friday night, protesters stood in McGinty's driveway demanding a federal investigation into the case. Police officers accompanied the protesters as they marched to McGinty's home, and a protest leader told demonstrators not to vandalize the property.
McGinty declined to comment, UPI reported on Saturday.
Several protesters laid down on the sidewalk outside of McGinty's home for four minutes -- the length of time it took for first responders to reach Tamir after he was shot.
The boy was killed by a police officer who was called to check out reports of a gunman. Tamir reportedly had a pellet gun in the waistband of his pants, and when he reached for it, officers fired on the boy. A grand jury declined to indict the officer who killed Tamir, sparking outrage in a year filled with stories of police killing unarmed black men.
McGinty announced the decision not to indict officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback in a press conference Monday.
"We told Rice's mother that the state must be able to show that officers acted outside the constitutional boundaries set forth by these United States," he said. "It was a 'perfect storm of human error' but did not equal criminal activity by the officers involved."
Jonathan Abady, the attorney representing Tamir's family, issued a statement slamming McGinty after the decision was announced:
"It has been clear for months now that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty was abusing and manipulating the grand jury process to orchestrate a vote against indictment," the statement said. "Even though video shows the police shooting Tamir in less than 1 second, Prosecutor McGinty hired so-called expert witnesses to try to exonerate the officers and tell the grand jury their conduct was reasonable and justified."
Besides calling for McGinty's resignation, protesters also demanded the firing of Loehmann and Garmback, a federal investigation into the case and that an independent prosecutor be used in cases involving use of force.