Cleveland Officials Demand Family of Tamir Rice Pay Overdue Ambulance Bills

Fifteen months after a Cleveland police officer fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice at a public park, the city is demanding that Rice’s family pay reportedly overdue ambulance fees.

Rice’s estate received the claim yesterday, asking that they pay for both the ambulance ride and medical fees that are considered the boy’s “last dying expense,” reports CBS News. Shortly after the claim was filed, the family of Rice released a statement, calling the demand “insensitive,” and the president of the Cleveland police union said that the demand is unreasonable.

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“The callousness, insensitivity and poor judgment required for the city to send a bill—its own police officers having slain 12-year-old Tamir—is breathtaking,” Tamir’s mother, Samaria Rice, said in a statement. “This adds insult to homicide.” 

Rice was killed in November 2014 while playing with a toy gun at a public park. Bystanders called police, reporting that a boy was waving a “probably fake” gun around, though the dispatcher failed to relay a description of the gun or Rice’s age to the responding officers. 

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Surveillance video shows that less than one second after arriving at the scene, Officer Timothy Loehmann opened fire and fatally wounded Rice.

In December, a grand jury failed to indict either of the two officers involved in the shooting.