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| University police officer charged with murder for shooting of Samuel DuBose | University police officer charged with murder for shooting of Samuel DuBose |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A white police officer who gunned down an unarmed black man in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been indicted for murder by a grand jury, as the county prosecutor described the shooting as the “most asinine act” he had ever seen committed by a police officer. | A white police officer who gunned down an unarmed black man in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been indicted for murder by a grand jury, as the county prosecutor described the shooting as the “most asinine act” he had ever seen committed by a police officer. |
| Samuel DuBose, 43, was killed on 19 July by a single shot to the head fired by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing during a routine traffic stop, in which DuBose was pulled over for not having a front license plate. | Samuel DuBose, 43, was killed on 19 July by a single shot to the head fired by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing during a routine traffic stop, in which DuBose was pulled over for not having a front license plate. |
| Tensing had maintained he was “dragged” by Dubose’s vehicle after the two entered into a physical altercation and was forced to shoot, but Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters said body-camera evidence completely contradicted this account. | |
| In a frank assessment of the officer’s conduct, Deters said Tensing had “purposely killed” DuBose and that he “should never have been a police officer”. | In a frank assessment of the officer’s conduct, Deters said Tensing had “purposely killed” DuBose and that he “should never have been a police officer”. |
| DuBose’s death is the latest in a string of a high-profile killings of black Americans at the hands of US police, and comes almost a year after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which prompted widespread protests around the US. The incident also follows the police shooting of unarmed 50-year-old Walter Scott in South Carolina, where eyewitness video led to a murder charge against the officer responsible. | |
| Tensing’s body-camera footage shows a relatively calm exchange between the two and there appears to be only a short altercation. In the recording, Tensing asks DuBose, a father of 10, for his license a number of times and enquires about a bottle on the driver’s floor, which DuBose hands over. At one point the driver responds: “I have a license. You can run my name,” after telling the officer he cannot find his card. | |
| Related: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive | Related: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive |
| “I didn’t even do nothing,” DuBose later says as the officer appears to reach inside the car. The officer then shouts “stop” twice and opens fire. | |
| Deters said the video showed that Tensing actually fell backwards after shooting DuBose, and that he was not dragged at all. | Deters said the video showed that Tensing actually fell backwards after shooting DuBose, and that he was not dragged at all. |
| “It is our belief that he was not dragged. If you slow down this tape you see what happens, it is a very slow period of time from when the car starts rolling to when a gun is out and he’s shot in the head,” Deters said. | “It is our belief that he was not dragged. If you slow down this tape you see what happens, it is a very slow period of time from when the car starts rolling to when a gun is out and he’s shot in the head,” Deters said. |
| “He [Dubose] was simply, slowly rolling away,” Deters added. | “He [Dubose] was simply, slowly rolling away,” Deters added. |
| The video shows the car then speeding up, a result, Deters said, of the fact DuBose was “dead instantly” and may have accelerated the car as he slumped. | |
| “He [Tensing] wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder, OK? He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate,” said Deters, visibly angered at points during the press conference. “This is, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken-crap stop, all right? And – I could use harsher words. | |
| “I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he added. “This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make, totally unwarranted.” | “I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he added. “This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make, totally unwarranted.” |
| Deters also said the death reflected poorly on the university police department and had advised Cincinnati police chief Jeffrey Blackwell that the force be disbanded and replaced with a new city police precinct on campus. | |
| “The university does a great job educating people … that should be their job, being police officers should not be their role.” | “The university does a great job educating people … that should be their job, being police officers should not be their role.” |
| The traffic stop occurred near the university’s main campus, and UC police have said the intersection was within the campus police’s jurisdiction. | The traffic stop occurred near the university’s main campus, and UC police have said the intersection was within the campus police’s jurisdiction. |
| At a press conference immediately after the announcement of charges, members of DuBose’s family welcomed the decision to prosecute. | |
| “I trust God, and I knew it was going to be alright,” said Audrey DuBose, Samuel’s mother. “I knew that if this man [Tensing] went free, and nothing was done to him, it was because he was really a righteous man and he didn’t do nothing. | |
| “But I knew that my son was a righteous man. I knew that my son had the same spirit that dwells in me, dwell in him. That’s how he was fed. So, if my son is righteous and he get killed, somebody had to be wicked here.” | |
| Mark O’Mara, the Dubose family’s attorney, said he was surprised by Deters’ strong remarks. | |
| “I can understand why, because this was an absolute unmitigated murder,” O’Mara told the Guardian. | |
| The video of the shooting “proved” to the Dubose family that “their son was who they always knew him to be, which was nonviolent,” O’Mara said. “And it proves that he was murdered by a cop without reason, so in that sense they were relieved as best as you can be relieved in the trauma.” | |
| O’Mara did not rule out a possible civil suit, saying: “I certainly think the department, for a lack of training, or whatever it may have been ... should be held responsible for this, absolutely.” | |
| The city had been bracing for the announcement of the grand jury decision with both members of DuBose’s family and city officials calling for calm. | The city had been bracing for the announcement of the grand jury decision with both members of DuBose’s family and city officials calling for calm. |
| The university cancelled all classes on its uptown and medical campuses on Wednesday in anticipation of the grand jury decision . In a statement, the university said the decision was made with “an abundance of caution”. | |
| “We realize this is a challenging time for our university community,” the statement said. | “We realize this is a challenging time for our university community,” the statement said. |
| Shortly after the indictment was revealed, the university announced Tensing had been fired. | |
| Major Charmaine McGuffey of the Hamilton County sheriff’s office said Tensing turned himself voluntarily in around 1.45pm. . He is expected to be arraigned at 10am tomorrow, with no bond yet set. | |
| Tensing was escorted to the county justice center through the sheriff’s tunnel system. “We didn’t take him outside,” McGuffey said. | |
| A protest organized by the Black Lives Matter movement was set for 6.30pm outside the county building. |