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Cleveland Boy Tamir Rice Wasn't Reaching for Pellet Gun: Report

The boy was shot after authorities received a report of a man pointing and waving a gun outside a recreation center in November 2014.
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/ Source: The Associated Press

A 12-year-old boy shot to death by Cleveland police last year had his hands in his pockets when he was shot and wasn't reaching for the pellet gun he'd been carrying, according to an expert's review of a new video analysis of the shooting.

Tamir Rice did not have enough time to remove his hands from his pockets before being shot, and his hands weren't visible to the officer, according to the analysis released late Friday night by attorneys for Tamir's family.

The new report and two others from experts already used by the family are the latest analysis of evidence to be released as a grand jury considers whether to bring charges against the officers in Tamir's death. The boy was shot after authorities received a report of a man pointing and waving a gun outside a recreation center in November 2014.

Related: Prosecutors Release Officers' Statements in Killing of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice

Previous reports concluded that officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir within 2 seconds of opening his car door. The new analysis determined it happened even faster, within less than a second, according to the review by California-based shooting reconstruction expert Jesse Wobrock.

With the patrol car windows rolled up, Tamir could not have heard commands to show his hands, Wobrock added.

"The scientific analysis and timing involved do not support any claim that there was a meaningful exchange between Officer Loehmann and Tamir Rice, before he was shot," Wobrock said.

Two other experts who previously reviewed the shooting for Tamir's family looked at the new frame-by-frame and also concluded Tamir wasn't reaching into his waistband when he was shot, according to the reports released Friday.

The attorneys for Tamir's family said Wobrock is available to testify before the grand jury. In response, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said an investigation is the search for the truth.

"We welcome and will review all credible relevant evidence from any source," McGinty said in a statement Saturday morning.

The pellet gun Tamir Rice was holding when he was shot by police.
The pellet gun Tamir Rice was holding when he was shot by police.NBC News

Tamir's family has criticized McGinty for months over the length of the investigation and has demanded charges against the officers.

McGinty has previously made public reports by three experts saying Loehmann was justified in shooting Tamir outside a Cleveland recreation center on Nov. 22, 2014.

Related: Rice Attorneys' Experts Conclude Shooting Was Unjustified

Last month, McGinty released an analysis of the video broken into 326 slides that was the subject of the new expert reports. Last week, he released statements by Loehmann and his training officer, Frank Garmback, who was driving that day.

Attorneys for Tamir's family say the officers gave up their Fifth Amendment rights by reading the statements to the grand jury and are now required to answer questions on cross examination.

The officers were responding to a 911 call when Tamir was shot. The caller told the dispatcher that the gun might not be real and that the man might be a juvenile, but that information wasn't passed on to the officers.

It turned out Tamir was carrying a nonlethal, Airsoft-type gun that shoots plastic pellets when Loehmann shot him twice outside the rec center. Tamir died a day later.