The mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, has apologized after the city claimed in a legal document 12-year-old African American Tamir Rice was to blame for his own death at the hands of police. Rice was playing with a toy gun when police fatally shot him within two seconds of their arrival. But in response to a lawsuit filed by Rice’s family, the city claimed Tamir Rice’s death was “directly and proximately caused by [his] failure … to exercise due care to avoid injury.” Mayor Frank Jackson apologized Tuesday.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson: “We are apologizing today, as a city, to the family of Tamir Rice and to the citizens of the city of Cleveland for our poor use of words and our insensitivity in the use of those words.”

The news comes as the Los Angeles Police Department is facing protests for its killing of a homeless man on Skid Row, and as the Mexican government has condemned the third U.S. police killing of a Mexican citizen in the past month. Police in Santa Ana, California, killed Ernesto Javier Canepa Díaz during what they said was a robbery investigation, but few details have been released. Meanwhile, a White House task force on policing has called for a series of reforms, including increased transparency and independent probes of fatal shootings.