The family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old unarmed black boy who didn't ask to be fatally shot by police, is being billed by the city of Cleveland to pay for the ambulance that transported Rice to a hospital where he would die the following day. The state is also charging the family for $500 in expenses including the ambulance's "mileage."
Subodh Chandra, who is representing the Rice family in their Cleveland civil suit, wrote in an emailed statement to Mashable commenting on the outrageous suit:
Rice, now one of the well-known people tied to the Black Lives Matter movement, was fatally shot by police officer Timothy Loehmann moments after the officer arrived at a Cleveland park on Nov. 22, 2014. Police had been called about a boy (Rice) playing with a gun that was "probably fake" according to the caller, but the operator failed to relay that information to Loehmann. This was later waved off as a "a perfect storm of human error" by the prosecutor in the case, which last month called for Loehmann not to face charges. But it's a storm we've come to know far too well over the past two years.
When a child loses a parent they become an orphan, but there is no label for the greatest pain in life that is a parent losing a child, and no parent should have to go through that, let alone pay for a measly bill.
The document, as provided to Mashable, can be seen here.
