In Columbus, Ohio, more than 100 people gathered for a vigil to mourn the death of 13-year-old African American Tyre King, who was shot and killed Thursday night by a white police officer after the officer allegedly mistook the child’s BB gun for a real gun. King was an eighth-grader who played football and was in the young scholar’s program at his school. Police say he was shot after officers chased him down as they were responding to a 911 call of a man who says he was robbed of $10. Police claim King pulled the BB gun from his waistband before he was shot. This is a witness to the shooting.
Witness: “We looked out the window to see what was going on, saw an officer running after somebody this way down to the left and heard gunshots about five, 10 seconds afterwards.”
Tyre King is the second-youngest person killed by police this year. His death recalls the police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was gunned down by two officers in November of 2014 while he was playing with a toy pellet gun in Cleveland, Ohio. At Thursday night’s vigil, people mourned the ongoing killing of African Americans by police.
Amber Evans: “That’s what people are sick and tired of. They’re sick and tired of justice being reserved only for the few, not for communities of color. They’re sick and tired of not feeling safe.”
Tyre King is at least the 761st person killed by police in the United States this year, according to an ongoing Guardian investigation.