A University of Cincinnati police officer who shot dead a motorist after pulling him over for a missing front license plate was indicted on murder charges Wednesday.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said Ray Tensing “purposely killed” 43-year-old Samuel DuBose, a black man who was unarmed at the time of the incident. Tensing “should never have been a police officer,” Deters said.
A grand jury indicted Tensing on a murder charge, and Deters said he would be seeking “life in prison” for the 25-year-old officer who later turned himself in.
The indictment came as authorities also released a video depicting the incident on July 19, in which Tensing is seen shooting DuBose seconds after DuBose’s car rolled slightly forward.
DuBose's family praised the indictment in a press conference after the announcement. Still, DuBose's sister, Terina Allen, 42, told reporters that without the video footage her brother's death would have been written off as justified. She said Tensing's fellow cops would have corroborated his story.
"My brother was about to be one more stereotype, and that’s not going to happen," she said. "We knew the video was going to vindicate our brother. When you know somebody, you know somebody."
Authorities have said Tensing spotted a car driven by DuBose and missing the front license plate, which is required by Ohio law. They say Tensing stopped the car and a struggle ensued after DuBose refused to provide a driver's license and get out of the car.
Tensing has said he was dragged by the car and forced to shoot at DuBose. He fired one shot, striking DuBose in the head.
But Deters dismissed Tensing's claim that he was dragged by the car and suggested that he shouldn't have pulled DuBose over to begin with. The prosecutor added that he believed Tensing lost his temper.
“I couldn’t care what his motivation was. I just know he intentionally killed somebody,” Deters said after playing a body camera video from the incident.
In that footage, Tensing is seen pulling over DuBose on a sidestreet and requesting the driver's license.
DuBose is not able to find the document. Seconds later, Tensing shoots and kills DuBose, and then runs after the car, which continues to move forward after the fatal shot.
“He was dead instantly,” Deters said. “It broke my heart. It’s just bad, it’s bad what he did and it shouldn’t have happened.”
DuBose’s death comes amid months of national scrutiny over police treatment of unarmed black men. The Cincinnati incident has also led to questions about the role armed campus police should play when they are off campus, as Tensing was.
“This was a chicken-crap stop,” for a minor infraction, Deters said, adding that Tensing might as well have let DuBose go. He also said he would recommend the disbanding of the University of Cincinnati (UC) police and the creation of a new police district that covers the University.
"I graduated from UC twice,” Deters said, praising the school. “But they're not cops. We have a great police dept in Cincinnati. Probably the best in Ohio.”
According to Tensing, who is white, DuBose refused to show his license or get out of the vehicle, and instead pulled out a bottle of alcohol. He said a scuffle ensured and later told 911 dispatchers that he had been “almost run over” by DuBose’s car.
“I think he was making an excuse for a purposeful killing of another person,” Deters said when pressed by a reporter why Tensing would do this even with the body camera evidence.
“I’m not saying he’s smart, I’m just saying what I think he did,” Deters said, referring to Tensing.
At DuBose’s funeral ceremony on Tuesday at the Church of the Living God in Avondale on Tuesday, more than 500 people — including Blackwell, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley and University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono — paid their respects to DuBose, a father of 10 and grandfather to four.
DuBose's sister, Allen, called for transparency in the investigation but told USA Today after the funeral service that her family didn’t “want any riots.”
“Sam wasn’t violent,” Allen said. “It would completely harm his memory if people were to take that route.”
UC officials said Monday they planned an independent review of police department policies following the incident, announcing the university had hired an independent reviewer to go over police policies and procedures.
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