VIDEO: WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. Cleveland police have released surveillance video from an officer’s fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy who turned out to be carrying a replica gun.
Surveillance video shows the rookie Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, seen waving a toy gun around near a playground on Saturday, fired at the young boy immediately after jumping out of his moving vehicle.
In footage released Wednesday, the boy was seen seated at a picnic table beneath a gazebo before the patrol car approached. Rice stood up and walked towards where the cruiser was pulling up. It was a matter of seconds before the officer shot him.
READ MORE: Investigation begins into police shooting death of boy with fake gun
The officer, whom police said was a rookie, quickly retreated back behind the cruiser with his gun still drawn.
The other officer then got out of the driver’s seat and walked towards Rice, then laying on the ground.
Rice died from his wounds on Sunday.
Ahead of the release of the video footage, Cleveland police identified the two officers involved as 26-year-old Timothy Loehman and 46-year-old Frank Garmback.
Loehman was appointed to the force this year, while Garmback has been with the department since 2008.
WATCH: Police in Cleveland fatally shot a 12-year-old boy, who had been waving around what turned out to be a toy gun. But surveillance video reveals just how quick the officer was to pull the trigger. Mike Armstrong reports.
Cleveland Police previously said Rice was shot after being told three time to raise his hands — the video did not have an audio track — before reaching for what turned out to be an airsoft gun in his waistband.
Cincinnati’s* Fox 19 reported the commands for Rice to raise his hands were made from inside the car.
Police said the replica did not have an orange safety indicator.
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The officers were responding to a 911 call on Saturday about someone waving a “probably fake” gun. Recordings of the call and dispatch were released at a press conference, at Cleveland Police headquarters, at the same time the video was played for reporters.
“It’s probably fake, but, you know what, it’s scaring the s–t out of me.”
The dispatcher did not tell responding officers the gun might be fake.
“This is not an effort to exonerate. It’s not an effort to show the public that anybody did anything wrong,” Deputy Chief Edward Tomba said. “This is an obvious tragic event where a young member of our community lost their life. We’ve got two officers that were out there protecting the public that just had to, you know, do something that nobody wants to do.”
Tomba refused to comment on what the officers said in their statements, including whether Tamir made any comments to them.
With files from David Shum and The Associated Press
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referenced Fox 19 as a news outlet in Cleveland. It is, in fact, a news station in Cincinnati, OH.
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