Samaria Rice told MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Saturday that she’s “mad as hell” that a grand jury declined to indict the Cleveland cop who fatally shot her 12-year-old son, Tamir.
“Due to the corrupt system, I have a dead child,” she told Harris-Perry.
Rice added: “I feel like breath has been taken out my body again, and it’s a struggle.”
The grieving mother said she told Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty that the decision not to file charges “was unacceptable.” She also asked the prosecutor for a “face-to-face” meeting to discuss the situation.
McGinty’s office announced Dec. 28 that the grand jury had decided not to file criminal charges against the two officers involved in the 2014 shooting.
Police Officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir, who had been playing with a toy pellet gun, at a Cleveland recreation center. Loehmann and his partner, Officer Frank Garmback, said they yelled at the boy to show his hands. Surveillance video, however, shows that Loehmann shot Tamir less than two seconds after the officers pulled up in their vehicle.
The Rice family released a statement saying that McGinty “deliberately sabotaged the case” and accused him of representing the officers instead of advocating for Tamir.
A number of analysts have also criticized McGinty.
Before the grand jury’s decision, protesters had been calling for McGinty to be replaced by an independent prosecutor. About 100 demonstrators marched Friday to McGinty’s home to call for his resignation.
Read more at MSNBC.