by Nick Castele
Cleveland plans to demolish the gazebo where Tamir Rice was fatally shot by a city police officer in 2014.
The 12-year-old had stood up from a picnic table at the gazebo just moments before police pulled up and an officer fatally shot him. Earlier, he had been playing with an air pellet gun nearby, outside Cudell Recreation Center on Cleveland’s west side.
A grand jury declined to indict the officers, and earlier this week the city agreed to pay the Rice family a $6 million settlement. A statement from the mayor’s office says the city will disassemble the gazebo next week, now that the legal cases are completed.
Family attorney Subodh Chandra welcomed the news.
“The Rice family very much appreciates that the city is proceeding very expeditiously to tear down the gazebo,” he said. “In addition to being an eyesore, it is a place of terrible memories for the family and for the community, and we’d like to see it gone.”
Chandra said the city and the family had an informal understanding that the gazebo would come down, though it was not an official part of the settlement. He said there are plans to come up with a modest memorial.
