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The family of Tamir Rice continues to seek accountability for his death
Assistant U.S Attorney General Kristen Clarke in a letter last Friday informed Samaria Rice and her attorney that the Department of Justice will not be reopening a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting and killing of Tamir Rice.
Noting that everyone appreciated the chance to meet and speak with Samaria Rice in October when she visited Washington D.C. to ask the DOJ to reopen the case, which was closed in 2020, Clarke nevertheless wrote that the career prosecutors who reviewed the case, uninfluenced by political pressure, agreed with the 2020 conclusion that the government couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that former Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann "willfully" violated Rice's civil rights.
Clarke also noted that the 2020 decision, which was reportedly hardly unanimous, likewise was not made under political pressure.
"By no means," Clarke wrote in a sentence underlined for emphasis, "should you view the Department's 2020 decision as an exoneration of Timothy Loehmann's actions."
Reached for comment by BuzzFeed News, Samaria Rice said: “I think they're pitiful and pathetic, and at this point no one is going to get justice when it comes to police shootings in America. It’s disgusting I don't have an indictment for my 12-year-old son.”
