“It’s been five months since a rookie police officer in Cleveland fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice…”

Today, the New York Times published a video on those months of experience and reflection that the Rice family has been through. They moved out of their home near Cudell Rec Center in an effort to heal, Samaria Rice says, but they ended up homeless. Earlier this month, she and her daughter moved into another westside home.

The NYT interviewed family members at the Jefferson Library in Tremont and at the park where Tamir was killed.

“My son never had a chance. I’m still waiting for answers on Why? and What happened?” Samaria says.

Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, reflects on her experience with guns, and for the first time, Tamir’s friend Devin Mims, 16, talks openly about the toy gun he gave to Tamir the day of the shooting, explaining that he removed its orange safety tip because it was broken.

The Cuyahoga County sheriff’s office continues to investigate the shooting, and a grand jury is unlikely to convene until the inquiry is complete.

Watch the video here. 

This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2015.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

2 replies on “New York Times Publishes Video on Rice Family”

  1. He got shot because he was waving what looked like a real gun. I’m unclear why it’s unclear.

  2. Tamir Rice died because he had a real-looking gun. There were two 911 calls made because people were scared when he waved a real looking gun around. He died because he pulled the same real-looking gun out when the police came. What you REALLY need to do, is hunt down that guy that admitted taking the orange piece of plastic off the gun “so it would look real” and beat the ever-loving snot out of him. You could take this opportunity to open the conversation with the youth of today about things they need to know – about that orange piece of plastic that SAVES LIVES, about NOT wanting to threaten people so that they are scared and call 911, about alternative hobbies such as basketball at the YMCA, about how to act when the police DO show up, about how to live, about how not to die, about so many many things that COULD have saved your boy. Those things that you are REALLY hiding from. Such as responsibility. I am truly sorry that your son died. I am even more sorry that it was in a painful, horrible and pointless way. I don’t think that gives you the right to pretend to not know what happened.
    Is there a race problem in this country? Yes. IS THAT WHAT HAPPENED HERE? No.

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