New evidence is surfacing regarding further details of the dispatch call in the 2014 Tamir Rice case. As a refresher, at the time of the incident, Tamir Rice was a 12-year-old African American boy who was shot and killed by two local Cleveland police officers, one of which was a trainee. The officers had received a report that a black male was at Cudell Recreation Center pointing a pistol at random people in the park. However, the dispatcher who received this 911 call failed to give the local police crucial information.
According to news networks, the dispatcher who received the 911 call was told on at different times throughout the conversation that the suspect (Tamir Rice) was “probably a juvenile” and also noted that his gun was “probably fake”. This information literally could have been the difference of life or death for this young man. Because these officers were only notified that the suspect was said to have a weapon, they acted as though their life was in immediate danger and responded to this call with brute force. Within minutes of arriving to the scene, officer William Cunningham (trainee at the time) shot Tamir Rice twice. This left the young man in critical condition leading to his death the next day.
Police Dispatcher did not give up the information
Due to the fact that the dispatcher failed to mention anything about the young man having a potential fake weapon as well as being a juvenile led to the death of Tamir Rice. Failing to mention such pertinent information to the police responding to the scene is complexly ludicrous and potentially a crime in itself. If in fact the dispatcher had mentioned every piece of information to the officers, this case could have ended completely different, possibly even sparing Tamir’s life.
Will the dispatcher get jail time?
Since this new information was leaked, we have learned that the dispatcher was only suspended for 8 days without pay. The fact that the company believes 8 days without pay makes up for the fact that this young man lost his life to negligence is absolutely appalling. This type of carelessness should be ground for termination if not jail time. The police should make a statement by showing other employees that careless work will result in serious punishment. The only thing 8 days without pay teaches anyone is that assisting in a murder will get you a small break from work. It’s highly unlikely that this type of “punishment” would deter other employees from making the same mistake in the future.
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