Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson apologized Monday for the city’s “poor use of words and our insensitivity” in the Tamir Rice case, CNN reported.
“We did something that … is hurtful to the family, that is disrespectful to them and the victim as well as the city of Cleveland,” the mayor said.
His apology comes after the city responded to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Rice’s family — by saying the 12-year-old’s death was his own fault.
Mr. Jackson said the “insensitive” language used in the legal filing “was not intended” and will be reworded, CNN reported.
“What I care about right now is that the family of Tamir Rice and the people of the city of Cleveland understand and realize that we are sorry for what we have done and that we apologize to them,” he said.
But an attorney for the Rice family, Benjamin Crump, said that isn’t enough.
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“I don’t want him just to apologize for the poor word use and the grammatical phrases,” Mr. Crump said Monday on CNN. “I want him to apologize for the death of this 12-year-old child, one of his citizens, at the hands of what we believe were police officers who were improperly trained.”
Tamir was fatally shot in November by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann, who says he mistook the pellet gun the boy had for a deadly weapon.
In its 41-page response to the family’s lawsuit filed Friday, the city said that Tamir’s injuries “were directly and proximately caused by the failure of Plaintiffs’ decedent to exercise due care to avoid injury,” CNN reported.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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