Cleveland police kill 12-year-old playing with toy gun

A 12-year-old boy in Cleveland has died after being shot by a police officer as he played with a toy gun at a local playground.

BuzzFeed reports that the shooting took place at 3:30 Saturday afternoon, and the victim, Tamir E. Rice, died Sunday morning at MetroHealth Medical Center Cleveland.

Cleveland police justified the shooting by saying that Rice did not comply with the responding officers' orders to put his hands up. They claim that he reached for the toy gun and that caused the officers to open fire, according to BuzzFeed. Both officers have been placed on administrative leave.

Adding to the tragedy is the fact that Rice lived just across the street from the playground and his mother was home at the time.

Disturbingly, the officers opened fire even though the person who called 911 said that they thought the gun was most likely fake, according to BuzzFeed. The head of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, a police union, said the 911 dispatcher did not tell this detail to the officers sent to the scene.

At a press conference the morning of Nov. 24, high-ranking Cleveland police officials said that the officer was only 10 feet away from Rice at the time of the shooting. They also said that there was video footage of the moment Rice was shot, but it has not been publicly released. The police department did provide the footage to Rice's family and their legal team.

This is the second Ohio case in six months where a black youth with a toy gun was killed by police. In Aug., 22-year-old John Crawford was shot and killed inside of a Beavercreek, OH Walmart as he meandered through the store while talking on his cell phone and carrying a toy gun in a non-threatening manner.