The New York Times was left red-faced this week after reporting incorrectly that an Ohio grand jury had indicted a police officer for the 2014 shooting death of a 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
A Times story published Monday afternoon reported that jurors had elected to indict patrolman Timothy Loehmann, who is white, for shooting Rice, an African-American, outside a recreational center in Cleveland.
But this didn’t happen.
“Grand jurors in Cleveland have indicted the police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year,” the Times initially reported. “The criminal charges came after a lengthy investigation that was criticized by Tamir’s family and activists, and are likely to lead to a high-profile trial in a city that has grappled with questions of race and equitable policing.”
the @nytimes has their TK copy up in their Tamir Rice story. pic.twitter.com/41ur7g0CsL
— Gene “GD” Demby (@GeeDee215) December 28, 2015
The Times’ original copy reported incorrectly that Loehmann, a “rookie patrolman with a questionable resume,” had been charged with “XXX.”
“His partner, Officer Frank Garmback, who pulled his car within feet of Tamir but did not fire his weapon, WAS/WAS NOT charged,” the Times added. “Tamir, who was black, was carrying a replica gun outside a recreation center when someone called 911.”
Though the Times’ original story got the details of Rice’s death correct, it was wrong on the jury’s decision.
Jurors decided not to indict Loehmann, and Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said Monday it was “indisputable” that Rice had drawn the toy gun from his waistband when he shot to death.
“Simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police,” the prosecutor said.
McGinty explained that Loehmann “had reason to fear for his life.”
The Times later owned up to the mistake, explaining in an editor’s note Monday that it had published the wrong version of the story.
“Because of a production error, an earlier version of this article containing incorrect and incomplete information was briefly published right after the grand jury decision was announced,” the Times said. “Two versions of this article had been prepared awaiting the decision, and the version saying the officers had been indicted was briefly posted in error.”
