Tamir Rice Father Speaks Out: Leonard Warner And Rice Family Are Still Waiting For Justice, They Reveal

Tamir Rice’s father speaks about the loss of his young son, seven months after he was gunned down by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann while playing with an airsoft gun. Rice’s biological father, Leonard Warner, told local media he was not aware that the pre-teen had the non-lethal weapon and that he and his family want justice.

Tamir Rice father speaks

Tamir Rice‘s father speaks for the very first time about the death of his young son at the hands of Ohio authorities. On November 22, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was gunned down in few seconds by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann, who was accompanied by officer Frank Garmback. The incident occurred after a 911 call was made reporting a person walking around a playground with a gun, which turned out to be a toy.

In an interview with WKYC reporter, Hilary Golston, Leonard Warner, who is Tamir Rice’s biological father, said he and his estranged girlfriend, Samaria Rice, were not aware that their son was playing with an airsoft gun that shoots nonlethal plastic pellets. When asked if he knew where the toy came from.

“No, the only person know is him,” the grieving father said:

The Rice’s family’s lawyer, Walter Madison, revealed that a 16-year-old neighbor asked Tamir Rice to hold the airsoft gun, as he charged a cell phone. Rice, who was being chaperoned by his older sister as he strolled on the playground, was left unsupervised for few seconds as the teenager went to the bathroom.

When the sister returned from the restroom, she discovered that her brother was shot and killed by police officers, who restrained the teen by handcuffing her and putting her in their patrol car. Warner said he is unable to accept the fact that his son is gone. The devastated man confessed:

“I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t.I’m still down and out… I’m back home with my mother… taking it real hard.”

Warner went to explain that Tamir Rice’s siblings can not understand what happened to their brother. He shared:

“Every time they wake up, they asking about him… and they go to sleep they asking about him .I can’t tell ’em, but he’s watching over you.”

As of May 15, while there is an ongoing investigation, neither Loehmann or Garmback have been interrogated by officials from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department.

Meanwhile, Rice’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Cleveland, Loehmann, Garmback, and 100 unnamed 911 operators.

What are your thoughts on the father’s interview?

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17 Comments

  1. RIP little fellow. the prosecutor from Baltimore would the one handling this, too bad that can’t happened. the white cops will get away for killing an innocent black kid. pathetic to know that they have not even prentend to talk to the child killers.

    1. Are you f8cking serious? The judge from Baltimore was racially biased in that trial, judging her previous record. We are talking about a city were the black mayor told authorities to give people room to destroy things and now wants FEMA to cover the bill. If anything, the 16 year old who gave him the airsoft gun should be held responsible for leaving a child unattended with an illegal toy. I say illegal because it is illegal to remove or paint the orange cap from a toy gun. Not sure if you’ve ever seen those things but they are made to visually mimic the real thing. They cannot be recognized with the naked eye from 20 feet away. The reason racism is still an issue is because ignorant people keep bringing it up.

      1. About how the orange cap was removed, you are right. That it is illegal and dangerous. However, in this case the video shows that the 12 year old child had the gun hanging on his pants and was not even pointing it at the officers when they shot him. The officers never even saw the tip of the gun to check and see if it was fake/real. Also, both of my parents were Miami-Dade police officers and when I talked to them about this case and show them the video they said that the officers broke protocol driving up onto the grass in front of the suspect. They should have gone as far as the parking lot (which is only about a 15 feet difference so they would have been close enough to still deal with any dangerous situation the thought they were getting ready to face). Also, protocol also requires their to imminent danger before officers shot their weapons, taking out their weapons could be seen as alright but they pulled the trigger when their was no imminent danger, again the toy which they thought was a gun was not in pointed at them or any other person, it wasn’t even in the child’s hands. So these officers are responsible for the mistakes that caused the death of a 12 year old child. Not the neighbor, not the child, not the parents, not the community.

    2. you sound just like Obama and the BS propaganda being spewed by
      the left racist demoncrap party! yes this is tragic and the cops
      who did should be punished but to say ‘white cops’ is more of
      the proof you people are brainwashed! but your the first ones
      to call ‘white cops’ in your drug crime infested areas that the
      demoncraps that created with their welfare foodstamping mentality!

      1. you made a good point the problem facing communities and officers shouldn’t be minimized by saying it’s just ‘white cops’ causing problems. The entire training that officers go through needs to be revamped. Many of these new officers grew up watching tv shows and their experienced co-workers (the old timers on the force) only told stories to these guys about their battle stories and when they looked like a hero. They should have told more stories about when they made mistakes or when community members helped them (ex: mother was a cop called to a domestic issue, while the boyfriend was in a room with his ex girlfriend and holding her chair in his arms. They talked the guy down, he to was scared to see them, he wasn’t really threatening anyone just intimidating looking and discovered that he was a big softy and a gentle giant).
        New young officers are running around scared and this is causing them to pull their guns out to soon and rather than defuse a situation they do the opposite.
        Also, communities no longer have the same relationship with officers. This is for many reasons, there was a time when neighborhood new which officer was patrolling their area and the officers had the time to talk and get to know the people and issues within ach family on the block without being lectured by their superiors ‘for wasting time’. People felt comfortable being around officers because they saw them as acquaintances. Now people see officers as over barring, unknowledgeable bullies. Maybe this problem could be helped if more officers could be hired o they had the time to get to know the neighborhoods rather then have a back log of 10 calls they need to answer at all times.

    3. If you knew anything about the story, Leslie, the cop who shot the kid holding a gun was black. The black officer told him to drop the gun and the kid raised it. It doesn’t matter what color the cop or the guy with the gun is, you raise a weapon on law enforcement and you’ll be shot. Enjoy your racist life, though. I’m sure it’s helping in the big picture.

      1. The officer was white Officer Timothy A. Loehmann. Also he was an officer for another department before Cleveland and records show that quite because the department told him they warned him they were going to fire him otherwise for poor performance. He was able to save face b quieting instead.
        http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officer-who-killed-tamir-rice-found-unfit-previous-police-job-n261111
        Also, Tamir didn’t point the fake gun toward the officers at any time. Even officers for the Cleveland department who reviewed the video said they could tell he didn’t point it toward the officers. Dispatch even told the officers that the caller thought the gun was a toy and not real.
        The officers should have arrived at the scene, taken into consideration the appearance of the suspect ‘he looks like a child’, is a crowd around and people in danger ‘no’, does he look agitated- do we need to diffuse a situation, where is the weapon/can we see it ‘ in the waist band’.
        The officers did fail in following protocol and caused the death of a child.
        So why don’t you enjoy your uninformed life. I’m sure it helps not dealing with the big picture issues.

  2. Whereas I can feel sympathy for the family at their loss, The police have only a little responsibility for the death. The family bears more for not training him about guns (toy or otherwise), not teaching about terrorist activities (and yes running around with a Gun-like object is a terrorist activity). But mostly it lies directly with the deceased for his decisions, it matters not that he was 12, he still made the choices about his activities. A police officer responding to the scene of the report of an individual brandishing a firearm to threaten citizens has only seconds to decide if the threat is credible (look at the statistics of when a cop is shot, how long into a confrontation it is on average).

    1. Lloyd! The cop pulled up and 2 seconds later shot the kid. There was no hesitation. Didn’t even wait to see if the kid would lift the gun in his direction; just jumped out of his car and started firing. I can guarantee that if that was a white kid or man, the officer would have gotten out of the car, gun still holstered, and ask questions like “what are you doing?” or “is everything ok?”.

      The cop knew before arriving at the scene that there may be a gun. In fact, the caller told 911 that it may be a toy. That police officer knew what he was possibly getting into but instead pulled up and started firing like he was in an action movie.

  3. What’s with that picture of the two finger down crap? Didn’t know his kid had any weapon (non-lethal or not)? From Baltimore myself, couldn’t care less if he was African-AMerican (does he have dual-citizenship, i doubt it).

  4. Some times when you are not given justice you should take justice , that fat cowardly pink face sloppy cop should be getting a bullet too ! His address can be found thru the postal carriers so must of them think they will never be found and no one knows where they live at ! He should not have been on the force at all , look at his history and previous evaluations from the 1st police dept ! If you are a scared cop then quit because the job is not for you – if fireman dont like smoke then quit , if doctors dont like blood then quit [see where im going with this?] Every job aint for everybody ! Most bad cops , about 20% of every force is useally a former crazed IRAQI war vet or a yahoo caveman cowboy who’s been a loser o picked on biggoted racist who now want power and revenge. Now when there are secret armed militia’s waiting to strike cops in an ambush while they’re eating donuts in thier car then the world has to come to a stand still !???

    1. I am sorry for the death of their child, no parent wants to lose their child before they die. Its a fact of life. But if the toy gun was altered in a way that the orange tip was removed or colored as stated above in someone else comment. Than the offices arrived and say a minor holding a firearm. If this was the case, than the family who was watching over this child should be at fault for the death. They allowed this minor to play with a toy that was altered to look like a real firearm. May question toward this saturation would be, was the 2 young adults really capable of taking care or watching over this minor?

      I would like to comment on Italian stallion statement, but I will not lower my stands to the level of his commons sense.

    2. You seem to know a lot about cops. Did you enroll in one of the academies, or spend any time on the force?

      As Tragic as the situation may be, even a 12 your old should have the commons sense not to start brandishing an authentic looking gun in public.

      If a kid plays chicken with a train, who’s fault is it if he gets hurt? If you drive you’re parent’s care into a ditch as a prank, and you are hurt as a result, who would you blame? Making people fear for their lives for a cheep thrill is equally stupid. Even an eleven year old should have more common sense than that.

  5. Looks to me like that 16 year old punk set up the boy, giving him the gun and calling the police – probably as a prank. Sorry for the loss of his life, but this is not on the police, but on that neighbor kid.

  6. It’s a tragic loss of life but the kid probably should not be pointing a toy, that is made to look realistic, at anybody, let alone a cop

  7. Kid running around with a gun WTF do you want the police to-do. Start a conversation with him. Fuck that teach your kids not to f5ck with guns you could end up like this kid. Its a tragedy but the police have to expect the worst and most people understand this. If anything you could have hit him with the car and knock him down but its easy to watch the video and make suggestions none of us were there.

  8. how could the police know if it was real or fake??? He should not have been waving the fake gun around in the first place. I really don’t think it is funny.

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