Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney on Tuesday said a "majority" of his department's investigation into the November killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by Cleveland police is finished, though he did not offer a deadline for its completion.
"My department has conducted a fair, thorough and impartial investigation," Pinkney told reporters Tuesday in a brief news conference. "We've pored over thousands of documents and conducted numerous interviews."
Pinkney's department began its work in January when Cleveland police and city officials agreed to hand over the investigation to the sheriff's office.
"We have been tirelessly working on this investigation," said Pinkney, who did not take questions, citing the ongoing investigation.
The lack of answers from Pinkney prompted some at the news conference to shout, "Six months, it's been six months," as the press update ended.
After Pinkney's department completes its investigation, it will deliver the evidence to the county prosecutor's office, which then will present the case to a grand jury. It will be up to the grand jury to decide if either of the officers involved in the shooting should face criminal charges.
Rice was shot and killed on Nov. 22 by police officers responding to a report of a man brandishing a gun. The caller told the 911 dispatcher that the person may have been a juvenile and that the gun was "probably fake," but that information was not relayed to the responding officers.
Video of the shooting shows rookie police Officer Timothy Loehmann, 26, opening fire almost immediately after his police cruiser came to a stop near Rice. Police officials have said Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, 46, believed Rice had a firearm and was advancing toward them.
The shooting sparked citywide outrage and caused many to question the qualifications of Loehmann, who had been fired from another Ohio police department for poor performance and possible emotional instability.
Rice's death, one of a series of police-involved killings that have driven a wedge between law enforcement agencies and the people they are sworn to protect, added to the troubles facing Cleveland police.
Less than a month after the shooting, the federal Department of Justice completed an investigation of the city police department and found the agency routinely used excessive force and sometimes used chemical sprays and stun guns to punish, rather than subdue, suspects.
That review was, in part, sparked by the killing of two people in a wild police pursuit that involved more than 100 officers in 2012. Cleveland police Officer Michael Brelo was charged with manslaughter in that incident and his trial is ongoing.
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