A father of 13, who was recently engaged, was reportedly shot dead by a campus police officer near the University of Cincinnati on Sunday, the Daily Beast reports.
According to the report, the UC officer, Ray Tensing, pulled over 43-year-old Sam Dubose about a mile from the university because he did not have a license plate on the front of his vehicle, authorities revealed Monday.
During the traffic stop, which occurred about 6:30 p.m., Tensing and Dubose allegedly had some sort of struggle through the window of the vehicle when Dubose allegedly refused to get out of the vehicle. Dubose then reportedly started to drive away before Tensing fired a shot into his head. The father of 13 was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Officer Tensing … asked Mr. Dubose multiple times to provide a license,” university Police Chief Jason Goodrich said at a press conference, according to the Daily Beast. “He produced a bottle of alcohol inside the car … but was unable to provide a driver’s license.”
Cincinnati Police Lt. Col. James Whalen told the Daily Beast that “to the best of [his] knowledge,” Dubose was not armed at the time of the fatal shooting.
Tensing has since been placed on administrative leave, and police are currently reviewing footage from his body camera and from the surveillance camera of a nearby building. Tensing was reportedly knocked to the ground during the scuffle and was treated for his injuries, including “bruising on his legs,” at a hospital.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Dubose did have a record, having been charged more than 75 times in Hamilton County over the past 20 years. Most of the charges, however, were nonviolent, including driving without a license, joyriding and having windows tinted too dark.
“People see an arrest record like that, and they automatically say, ‘Oh, that’s why they killed him,’” Ebony Johnson, Dubose’s cousin, told the Enquirer. “It wasn’t like that. He’s never been violent.”
“My son was not a violent person,” Dubose’s mother, Audrey, added. “He got stopped a lot, but he never tried to fight.
“It was unjustified. My son had no business getting killed,” the grieving mom told reporters who gathered at a Monday-night vigil at the location where Dubose was shot. “I would love for the police officer that did this to let me know how could he put a gun to a human being’s head, any human being, not just my son.”
Read more at the Daily Beast and the Cincinnati Enquirer.