Video Shows Police Officer Shooting 12-Year-Old Boy
CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. First, we wish you the best on this Thanksgiving day, especially to our troops and their families. Now, we do have new information for you on an important story. A disturbing video shows a 12-year-old boy being shot by police in Cleveland. They were responding to 911 calls of someone brandishing a gun. The calls were real; the gun was fake. And we want to warn you: some of this video you're going to see is graphic. Let's get to George Howell with the story.</s>GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This video was recorded on a security camera in a Cleveland park, and it shows Tamir Rice moving in and out of view. Keep in mind: these are the last few moments of this 12-year-old's life, video his family wants you to see. First we see Rice pacing the sidewalk, brandishing what looks to be a weapon, at one point even taking a two-handed shooting stance. All the while, police say he was being watched.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman sitting in the gazebo is the gentleman that called into our dispatch center.</s>HOWELL: Here's that initial call to 911.</s>CALLER: I'm sitting here in the park at West Boulevard by the West Boulevard Rapid Transit Station. And there's a guy in here with a pistol, and it's probably a fake one, but he's pointing it at everybody.</s>HOWELL: In fact, the caller points out twice the gun is probably fake.</s>CALLER: The guy keeps pulling it in and out. It's probably fake, but you know what? He's scaring the</s>HOWELL: Here's the clip that shows why the man called 911. The object that looks like a handgun we now know is really a toy pellet gun, and Rice seems to point it at this person, whose identity is blurred. Police say he's also seen here, reaching for a cell phone, then having a conversation. Minutes later, Rice moves to the gazebo, where he's now alone. This just minutes before police arrive. And now we know exactly what the dispatcher told the responding officers before they arrived. Notice how she never relays the information that it may be a fake gun.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody is tied up with priorities. There's a guy sitting on a wing pointing a gun at people.</s>HOWELL: A few seconds later she describes Rice but again fails to pass along the words the 911 caller used about the gun probably being fake.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the park by the youth center, there's a black male sitting on the swings. He's wearing a camouflage hat, a gray jacket with black sleeves. Said he keeps pulling a gun out of his pants and pointing it at people.</s>HOWELL: What happens next happens very quickly. Officer Frank Garmback driving and Officer Timothy Loehmann.</s>DEPUTY CHIEF ED TOMBA, CLEVELAND POLICE DEPARTMENT: The officers ordered him to show his hands and to drop the weapon, and the young man pulled the weapon out. And that's when the officer fired.</s>HOWELL: In the dispatcher's audio, you can hear the officer's grim call for help.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Radio, shots fired. Male down, black male, maybe 20, black revolver, or black handgun. Send EMS this way.</s>HOWELL: George Howell, CNN, Atlanta.</s>PEREIRA: We're going to bring in CNN commentator and legal analyst Mel Robbins. Mel, this is a very difficult piece of video to watch. I'm going to show it one more time, because the family does want it to be seen. Here, these final moments of this 12-year-old's boy life. It all happens very, very quickly. Mel, I know you've seen the entire video. I want you to tell me your reaction to this deadly situation.</s>MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR/LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, as soon as I saw it, I actually got all choked up, and I just needed to call somebody. I called our colleague, Joey Jackson. I then e-mailed you. This is absolutely -- I'm just speechless. This is -- this is -- I hate to use the word but it's almost like the police executed this kid. They pull up. The child, he's 12. He's in sixth grade. This is a park. It is a toy gun. He is shot within two seconds, Michaela, of the police pulling up. I mean, it is literally unbelievable.</s>PEREIRA: So here is the situation. Let's walk through some of these pieces and parts of this. Because as you mentioned, it happened so quickly. First of all, what struck me, Mel, and I want you to react on this, and we'll kind of dice -- you know, parse this out a little bit. They roll up so very quickly on him, like directly on him. There's no distance. There's no perimeter. There's no sort of communication: put your hands up, et cetera, from afar. They literally almost roll the vehicle right up on him. That doesn't seem like protocol.</s>ROBBINS: Well, I don't know if it's protocol or not. But you know, I watched the entire thing, and I think everybody should, before they make a judgment call. Because if you're a parent, if you know a 12- year-old. You know, we all talk about how 12-year-old boys, what they like to play with. This is what my nine-year-old does in the yard with his friends, chasing each other with guns and all that kind of stuff. This kid for seven minutes, Michaela, is pacing around. He's pulling this gun out. He's waving it around. And then he's putting it back in. Then he's talking on his phone. Then he's kicking the snow around. Before the police arrive, this child is sitting at a picnic table for over two minutes, just sitting there doing nothing. The police come barreling in, and they claim that they yelled through an open door at the kid to put his hands up, put his hands up, put his hands up. How is that possible? How is -- how are you supposed to hear what the police are saying? The windows are up in the car, Michaela.</s>PEREIRA: OK.</s>ROBBINS: The police pull up onto the grass.</s>PEREIRA: Right. They pull up onto the grass, and it looks as though quickly this young man, this child is down. Here's another point of the conversation that we need to have. There was such a disconnect. There was no communication between the dispatcher, who said other police officers were apparently tied up with other priorities. They did not pass along to those officers that are arriving on scene that there were reports from 911 callers that they thought the gun was fake.</s>ROBBINS: Yes, that is absolute inexcusable recklessness. And under the Ohio statutes, there is a charge for reckless -- you know, reckless homicide. I mean, you can -- in my mind, based on the litany, the litany of errors and the way in which these police responded, by pulling up with, clearly, guns blazing at the speed that they pull up within 10 feet of this 12-year-old child at a park on the grass in the middle of the day on a Saturday afternoon. There's no reports of shots fired. There's no reports of anything other than a, quote, "kid with a possible fake gun"...</s>PEREIRA: But it wasn't even a kid. They were saying they thought maybe, you hear the officers saying maybe a 20-year-old. But at that close proximity would they not have seen that this was a child?</s>ROBBINS: Well, you know, one of the things that scares me about this -- and look, I've been taking the heat on the Ferguson coverage, because I've been saying over and over again that I support what the grand jury found, that the evidence tends to support and does support what Officer Wilson said. But in this particular case, I'm going to tell you, this is a stunning video, because what it shows is it shows what all the protesters have been saying, which is the police in many instances act as the judge, jury and executioner. And in this case, because of the litany of errors that happened on the police force's end, from how they handled it to not passing on the information, I think there needs -- this is going to a grand jury. And if there are no charges for a reckless, you know, kind of homicide in this case based on the video alone -- I realize we're going to get back into what did the officers reasonably perceive? But to your point, there were alternatives here.</s>PEREIRA: Yes.</s>ROBBINS: They could have stayed on the street, Michaela, and made an announcement from the car. They could have gotten out of the car with the guns pointed. This kid doesn't look like he's brandishing a weapon. He looks like he's pulling up his pants.</s>PEREIRA: Right. Mel Robbins, this is a story we want to stay on and we will. Thank you for your passion and your outrage. We appreciate you coming and joining us with voice on Thanksgiving Day. Thank you so much. Still ahead, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. Her health, her age renewing a debate on whether she should perhaps retire. And how would that impact the court and of course, the presidency. The final countdown is on for Macy's Annual Thanksgiving Day parade. We're going to take you back live to the parade route this morning.