Pictured are 12-year-old Tamir Rice and Attorney Subodh Chandra, one of the attorneys for the Rice family and the boy's estate
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CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio - The city of Cleveland has settled an excessive force and wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family and estate of 12-year-old police killing victim Tamir Rice for $6 million, likely the largest of its type in city history.
Federal District Court Judge Dan Polster approved the unprecedented settlement that has the stamp of approval of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's three-term Black mayor.
It comes as the 2016 Republican National Convention heads to Cleveland this July.
Rice's mother, Samaria Rice, will get $250,000 before attorneys fees, his father, "TR," will also get $250,000, and the Black boy's estate will receive $5,500,000.00, with much of that money likely going to the family too, also absent legal fees and administrative costs.
According to court documents, the city will pay $3 million of the $6 million in 2016 and $3 million in 2017.
Cleveland attorney Subodh Chandra, and the New York-based law firm of Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff & Abady represent Rice's estate and his mother and father in the litigation.
" Although historic in financial terms, no amount of money can adequately compensate for the loss of a life," said Chandra. "Tamir was 12 -years -old when police shot and killed him—a young boy with his entire life ahead of him, full of potential and promise."
Chandra said that the problem of police violence, especially in communities of color, is a crisis plaguing the nation.
"It is the Rice family's sincere hope that Tamir’s death will stimulate a movement for genuine change in our society and our nation’s policing so that no family ever has to suffer tragedy such as this again, " said Chandra.
The case was settled without any admission of guilt by any of the parties, including the city and the two White cops involved in the deadly 2014 shooting, rookie Timothy Loehmann, who pulled the trigger, and his partner, veteran police officer Frank Garmback.
Both cops escaped grand jury indictments late last year after Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who lost reelection to Michael O'Malley in the Democratic primary, fixed the case for police, including handpicking law enforcement experts.
Greater Cleveland community activists are calling for McGinty to resign or be removed from office behind his mishandling of the Rice grand jury and several other Cleveland police deadly force cases in which he successfully lobbied the grand jury against indictments. (As to the demand by greater Cleveland community activists for McGinty to be removed from office and indicted, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS ).
The Rice tragedy has gained national attention coupled with local and country-wide protests, a symbol of the unrest around police killings of Black men and boys, including Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Eric Garner in New York, and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
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