Pictured are 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and Ohio 11th Congressional Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, who also chairs the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog Kathy Wray Coleman is  a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio-The open-to-the-public memorial service for 12-year-old Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Tamir Rice, who was Black and unarmed when he was gunned down by police on Nov 22 at a public playground on the city's largely White west side, is today, Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 11 am at Mount Sinai Baptist Church on Cleveland's east side. Viewing was Sunday afternoon at Gaines Funeral Home.

Rice had a toy pellet gun that he allegedly was pointing at people before police arrived following a 9-1-1 call, though surveillance video shows no crowd when police zoom up on the young boy and shoot him instantly. His older sister told reporters that police said raise your shirt and then shot the child twice in the abdomen, and then claimed later that Rice went for his toy gun. He died later at a local hospital.

The unprecedented case has caused racial unrest in the largely Black major metropolitan city, and comes on the heels of a string of arbitrary Cleveland police shootings of Black people in recent weeks, and the decision last week by a majority White grand jury not to charge former Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed Black teen Michael Brown.

Even Congress is concerned, including 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Warrensville Heights, Ohio Democrat and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the family of Tamir Rice and the community struggling with the loss of a 12 -year -old boy fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer in a park outside the Cudell Recreation Center," said Fudge.  "The City of Cleveland must ensure a thorough and transparent investigation of this tragic shooting."

Fudge, the Cleveland NAACP, and the Call and Post Newspaper, a local Cleveland weekly that targets the Black community, are calling Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and federal authorities to task on the controversial shooting, and other Cleveland police killings, a rarity, though the Black mayor is also fueling his roots.

"With the long awaited report by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into the use of deadly force, racial discrimination and police pursuits by the Cleveland Division of Police expected soon, I urge DOJ to review this incident and continue monitoring the Police Department," the congresswoman said.

Rice was shot and killed by rookie Cleveland police officer Tim Loehmann 26, who gunned the Black boy down outside of a gazebo at the Cudell Recreation Center as his veteran partner, Frank Jarmback, his gun drawn also, watched the killing. Both are White and both are on administrative leave with pay.

The Rice family is represented by renowned Cleveland attorney David Malik, who this year, along with Cleveland attorneys Tyrone Reed and Terry Gilbert, settled  for  $3 million, a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the two families of Malissa Williams, 30, and Tim Russell, 43, both gunned down by Cleveland police in 2012. The 13 cops that did the shooting, none of them White, and all of them slinging 137 bullets, are still on the job and only one of them, Michael Brelo, has been charged. He faces two counts of voluntary manslaughter and awaits trial before Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell.

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)