On November 27, 2015, ECBAWM sent a letter to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty, enclosing two independent expert reports which both conclude that the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by Cleveland police on November 22, 2014, was unreasonable, unjustified, and a departure from accepted police practices.

The first report is by Jeffrey Noble, who was a police officer for 28 years, including serving as Deputy Chief of Police of Irvine and Westminster, in California. Mr. Noble has extensive experience has an expert on police use of force and has been retained as an expert by many police departments across the country, including Chicago, San Francisco, and Austin. The second report is by Roger Clark, who is a 27-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Mr. Clark has been recognized as an expert in the police use of force in courts across the country and his work has been heavily relied on by courts, including the Fifth and Ninth Circuits Courts of Appeals. Both Mr. Clark and Mr. Noble strenuously disagree with the conclusions of the so-called experts put forth by Prosecutor McGinty, who concluded the shooting of Tamir Rice was reasonable and justified. Based on the available evidence, both Mr. Clark and Mr. Noble conclude that this shooting was unreasonable, criticizing both the tactics that led to the officers pulling up and immediately shooting Tamir within 1.7 seconds and the fact that Tamir did not pose a threat at the time the officers arrived.

ECBAWM called on Prosecutor McGinty to present Mr. Noble and Mr. Clark to the grand jury that is currently convened to examine whether criminal charges should be brought against the police officers who killed Tamir.

Read the Jeffrey Noble report here, the Roger Clark report here, and the ECBAWM letter to Prosecutor McGinty here.

ECBAWM attorneys Jonathan S. Abady, Earl S. Ward, and Zoe Salzman represent the mother, sister, and estate administrator of Tamir Rice.