Credit: Photo via blacklndmarks/Instagram
On Sunday, two days before what would have been Tamir Rice‘s 17th birthday, a public memorial and dedication was held under the exact gazebo where the 12-year-old was shot and killed by Cleveland policeman Timothy Loehmann — albeit 350 miles away from its original Cleveland location.

Saved from tear-down, the structure has been temporarily moved to Chicago’s Stony Island Arts Bank by the non-profit arts group, Rebuild Foundation.

On hand for the ceremony, Tamir’s mother Samaria Rice told a small crowd that she hadn’t seen the gazebo in a while.

“It’s so very real,” she said, according to Cleveland.com. “I can envision Tamir playing in the gazebo, and, you know, other children playing in the gazebo. Things like that. I can envision it right at this moment. I always have visions of it, matter of fact.”

At this time, Samaria is working to bring the structure back to Cleveland for a permanent installation in honor of her son. The gazebo was moved back in 2016 and is made to look as close as possible to the way it did back at the Cudell Recreation Center.

Earlier this month, Samaria publicly opposed the effort to appeal officer Loehmann’s firing, delivering petitions to Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association (CPPA) headquarters.

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This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2019.

3 replies on “The Gazebo Where Tamir Rice Was Killed By Police Finds New Home in Chicago”

  1. Keep it in Chicago. Don’t allow it to be returned to Cleveland unless it’s melted down and made into something else. A memorial sculpture, perhaps, but not at the original site. Time to move on.

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