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Union: Police Not Told Boy's Gun Might Be Toy

A police officer (L) is seen pointing his weapon during an incident involving the shooting of a 12-year-old boy with a pellet gun at the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio, in this still image from video released by the Cleveland Police Department November 26, 2014.
Credit Cleveland Police Department release

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The head of a Cleveland police union says the officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy last month were not told by a dispatcher that the gun might be a toy or the suspect a child as initially relayed by a 911 caller.

Union president Jeff Follmer said Friday that officers had no way of knowing that Tamir Rice was carrying a pellet gun when he was shot once in the abdomen Nov. 22 by Officer Timothy Loehmann.

Surveillance video released by police shows Tamir being shot within 2 seconds of a patrol car stopping near him.

Follmer says Officer Frank Garmback pulled into a park when they saw Tamir at a distance and meant to stop the patrol car sooner but slid on slick grass.

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