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Sheriff might investigate Cleveland shooting of black 12-year-old

Samaria Rice (L), the mother of Tamir Rice, the 12-year old boy who was fatally shot by police last month while carrying what turned out to be a replica toy gun, speaks alongside the father of Tamir, Leonard Warner, during a news conference at the Olivet Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio December 8, 2014. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk
Carletta Goodwin, teacher of Tamir Rice, speaks at his funeral in Cleveland, Ohio December 3, 2014. Rice had an Airsoft-type replica gun that resembles a semiautomatic pistol and was fatally shot by a patrol officer after a 911 call reported someone pointing a gun at people at the Cudell Recreation Center. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk
A mourner reads the obituary from the program during the funeral service for Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio December 3, 2014. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk
Samaria Rice (C), the mother of Tamir Rice, the 12-year old boy who was fatally shot by police last month while carrying what turned out to be a replica toy gun, speaks surrounded by Benjamin Crump (L), Leonard Warner (2nd R) and Walter Madison (R) during a news conference at the Olivet Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio December 8, 2014. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk
Al Sharpton marches with family members of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin to Capitol Hill in a protest against police violence organized by the National Action Network in Washington December 13, 2014. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan
(L-R) Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, Rev. Al Sharpton, Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, and Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, lead the national Justice For All march against police violence, in Washington December 13, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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REUTERS
January 1, 2015 - 10:33 pm
 

The investigation into the shooting death of a black 12-year-old boy by a white Cleveland police officer could be taken over by an outside agency, a media report said.

Cleveland city officials have been in talks to hand their investigation into the Nov. 22 shooting of Tamir Rice over to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, the Northeast Ohio Media Group reported on Wednesday.

Activists and attorneys for Rice’s family have called for an independent investigation of the shooting.

Rice, a sixth-grader, was shot by a police officer responding to a call of a suspect brandishing a handgun in a park. The weapon turned out to be a replica that typically shoots plastic pellets.

A coroner’s report ruled the death a homicide. Spokesmen for the sheriff and Cleveland’s city hall did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Rice shooting came at a time of heightened scrutiny over use of force by U.S. police. Cleveland’s police force has been under a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, which found last month that the department systematically engages in excessive use of force.

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