Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced on Wednesday that Ray Tensing, a University of Cincinnati police officer who shot Samuel DuBose — a 43-year-old black man pulled over for not having a license plate on the front of his car — in the head on July 19, will be charged with murder.
"It was a senseless, asinine shooting," Deters said after releasing body cam footage of the traffic stop, which Deters called “a pretty chicken-crap stop."
"He purposely killed him," he said. "He should never have been a police officer."
The original police report of the incident said that Tensing had been dragged by DuBose's car, which led to the shooting. The prosecutor said the video instead seemed to show that the officer had fell backward after shooting DuBose, and that the victim may have fallen forward on the gas pedal afterward. Given the movement of the car and Tensing, it is a little hard to see exactly what is happening
University of Cincinnati guidelines say that officers "should not discharge a firearm at or from a moving vehicle except as the ultimate measure of self-defense or defense of another when the suspect is using deadly force."
Deters was shocked when he saw the footage released today. "And I realize what this was going to mean to our community, and it really broke my heart because it's just bad."
"Could you imagine the outrage you would have if this was your kid, if this was your brother, over a stop like this?” Deters added. “And he didn’t do anything violent towards the officer. He wasn’t dragging him. And he pulled out his gun and intentionally shot him in the head.”
Tensing, who was on administrative leave, has reportedly turned himself in. The University of Cincinnati canceled classes today, in advance of the press conference. “We realize this is a challenging time for our university community,” a statement read.
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