On Nov. 22, 2014, a Cleveland police officer shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice when he was playing with a toy gun in a public park. Over a year later, this past December, a grand jury declined to indict the two officers involved in the shooting.
Now, the city of Cleveland is charging his family for death-related medical expenses.
The city filed a $500 claim against Rice's estate on Feb. 11, requesting Rice's family pay $450 in ambulance service fees plus $50 for mileage fees.
Fusion reports:
Under Ohio law, the administrator or executor of a person’s estate is responsible for paying “expenses of the last sickness of the decedent,” and someone in the city’s legal department thought it would be a good idea to invoke that law and go after the Rice family for the unpaid bill.
...
Rice family attorney Subodh Chandra told local TV station Fox 8 that the claim amounted to harassment.
“The Rice family is disturbed by the city’s behavior. The callousness, insensitivity, and poor judgment required for the city to send a bill after its own police officers killed 12-year-old Tamir is breathtaking,” Chandra told Fox 8.
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