12-year-old Tamir Rice was murdered by police in 2014. Rice was infamously holding a toy gun, which was misidentified by white police officer Timothy Loehmann. According to The New York Times, the Justice Department has quietly ended the investigation on Rice's murder. The report claims that, "Career prosecutors had asked in 2017 to use a grand jury to gather evidence in their investigation, setting off tensions inside the department. In an unusual move, department supervisors let the request languish for two years before finally denying permission in August 2019, essentially ending the inquiry without fully conducting it."
The department has yet to officially close the case, which usually would include a draft memo to explain why no one was charged. Instead, it's almost as if they are secretly letting the file go dead without a full explanation. Former federal prosecutor Subodh Chandra, who represents the Rice family, stated, “When Samaria Rice heard the news, she cried out repeatedly, ‘I’m not ready for this!’” Samaria is Tamir's mother. “The federal investigation was her last hope for justice. Accountability was so important to her and her family.”
The Justice Department’s press office declined to comment to The Times and Henry Hilow, the attorney who represented the two officers involved in the case, also did not comment.
