6 Months On, Police Who Shot Tamir Rice Yet to Be Interviewed

Police officers involved in the shooting of a child in Cleveland have been shielded from investigators for months by an obscure legal protection, according to a report Wednesday.

Cleveland Police officers Timothy Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback are among the few witnesses yet to be interviewed in the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office's investigation. Loehmann gunned down 12 year old African American boy Tamir Rice in a Cleveland park in November 2014.

In a statement Tuesday, Sheriff Cliff Pinkney, who is tasked with investigating potentially criminal actions by the police officers involved in the incident, provided a timeline of the work of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's office, stating that thus far they had conducted a “fair impartial and thorough investigation.”

Pinkney added that although there was still a few witnesses left to interview, the “majority” of the work was complete.

The sheriff added his office had been unable to view a redacted version of the city's investigative file on the incident until mid-February. Statements from Loehmann and Garmback made during an internal police investigation weren't included in the redacted file.

The two officers have been spared from being interviewed by investigators for so long due to Garrity Rights, according to an investigation by the Daily Kos.

Garrity Rights are protections afforded to public sector employees that make it unconstitutional for statements made during internal investigations to be used in criminal proceedings.

“In short, Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, by law, don't have to say a word to investigators, and anything they may have said to the Cleveland Police Department before the case was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office in January is inadmissible in court,” the Daily Kos' Shaun King explained.

King stated both the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office and the Cleveland Prosecutor's Office had confirmed to him that they had “not yet interviewed or attempted to interview either Loehmann or Garmback.”

King argued, “The family of Tamir Rice has been waiting for answers for nearly six months. While it’s understandable that police officers have the constitutional right to not incriminate themselves, the family fully and completely deserves to hear the police perspective on why this happened.”

Rice's family has been critical of the police handling of the November shooting.

The shot that killed Rice was fired by Loehmann, who was responding to a 911 call. The caller reported seeing someone brandishing a gun in a park, though they weren't sure if it was a real firearm. Surveillance footage circulated on social media showed Loehmann opening fire on the child within two seconds of pulling up at the scene in a patrol car. The suspected weapon was later found to be a toy pellet gun. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Cleveland police regularly use excessive force.