text: × Community leaders to call on judge to issue arrest warrants in Tamir Rice case 
   
   CLEVELAND– Cleveland community leaders will not wait for prosecutors to decide whether or not murder charges should be filed in the Tamir Rice case. They will go straight to a judge. 
   
   According to a press release, a group of civil rights leaders, activists, and clergy will hold a press conference Tuesday morning to announce they are filing a number of citizens’ affidavits for probable cause in the 12-year-old’s death. The release states that the affidavits will call on a judge to issue arrest warrants for the two officers involved. 
   
   Police shot and killed Tamir Rice last November. They received a call about a male pointing a gun at people outside the Cudell Recreation Center. Investigators found he had an airsoft pistol that looked like a powerful handgun. 
   
   Rev. Dr. Jawanza Colvin, pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, said in the release: 
   
   “We are still waiting for the criminal justice system to enact justice in the name of Tamir Rice. It has been more than six months since his tragic death and, yet, the people still have no answers and no one has been held accountable. Today, citizens are taking matters into their own hands utilizing the tools of democracy as an instrument of justice.” 
   
   In response, Steve Loomis, President of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, released the following statement to the FOX 8 I-Team: 
   
   “Talk about a grandstand of vigilantism. This is yet another attempt to totally disrespect and disregard our justice system. The same ambulance chasing attorneys that demanded a “transparent investigation from an outside agency be completed”, and that the facts of that investigation “be presented to the Grand Jury”, have now changed their minds. These same folks now want to bypass not only the independent investigation they demanded, but the grand jury system as well. While those with agendas continue to disregard evidence, rules of law, and fact, in lieu of the self serving, emotional and fictitious claims, the Ferguson Effect continues to grow. The unfortunate and unintended result we be that those that need us the most will be made to suffer from increasing lawlessness of an emboldened criminal element. The continued attacks on police officers and our justice system will only serve to increase the “Ferguson Effect” among police officers. While these ambulance chasers continue to demand police officers be “held accountable” for their actions they are seemingly never content with that accountability. They also NEVER hold the involved suspects accountable for their actions and continue to ignore the generational and decades old issues that continue to degrade and plague our society. It continues to amaze me that while police involved shootings represent less than 1% of ALL shootings nationwide, they represent nearly 90% of the story line of national, state, and local media coverage. The vast and mostly silent majority of law abiding, God fearing citizens are sick of these attacks on police officers and support the very difficult and absolutely necessary jobs we do.” 
   
   Stay with fox8.com for LIVE coverage of Tuesday’s press conference. 
   
   Continuing coverage of the shooting of Tamir Rice here. ||||| CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A group of community leaders, clergy and civil rights activists on Tuesday plan to announce they've filed affidavits seeking charges against two Cleveland police officers involved in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. 
   
   The group, which includes the rev. Jawanza Colvin from Olivet Institutional Baptist Church and Case Western Reserve University professor Rhonda Williams, will hold an 11 a.m. press conference to announce the filing. 
   
   The group plans to file several affidavits under a rarely used state law asking a Cleveland Municipal Court judge to find probable cause to issue arrest warrants for Cleveland police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback in connection with the Nov. 22 shooting outside Cudell Recreation Center. 
   
   * Related: Cleveland police union head blasts group's plan to seek charges 
   
   The law, passed in 1960, allows any person with knowledge of the facts of a case to file sworn affidavits asking a judge to find probable cause to sign off an arrest warrant. 
   
   "We are still waiting for the criminal justice system to enact justice in the name of Tamir Rice. It has been more than six months since his tragic death and, yet, the people still have no answers and no one has been held accountable," Colvin said in a Tuesday press release. "Today, citizens are taking matters into their own hands utilizing the tools of democracy as an instrument of justice." 
   
   The case currently rests in the hands of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, which will present the evidence to a grand jury -- a process that could take weeks. 
   
   By invoking the state law, the group hopes to bypass that process and secure swift arrests on charges that include aggravated murder and manslaughter. 
   
   If the group succeeds, the case would still end up before a grand jury, as guaranteed by Ohio's constitution. 
   
   County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty used the grand jury process in connection with the November 2012 high-speed police chase that ended with 13 officers firing 137 shots at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were unarmed. 
   
   Russell and Williams were killed, and police officer Michael Brelo was indicted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter. Judge John O'Donnell found Brelo not guilty May 23, touching off a day of tense demonstrations that ended with 71 protesters arrested. 
   
   Late Monday, McGinty's office issued a statement in response to a New York Times report about the group's plans. 
   
   "Once the investigation is complete -- and in the death of Tamir Rice, it is not at this time -- all evidence and expert analysis will be presented to the Grand Jury," McGinty's spokesman, Joe Frolik, said. "The Grand Jury in Cuyahoga County, by the policy of the County Prosecutor's Office, ultimately makes the charging decision in all fatal use of deadly force cases that involve law enforcement officers." 
   
   Frolik said his office plans to release the contents of the Tamir Rice investigation "fairly soon," once medical and personal information is redacted.
target: – It has been more than six months since a rookie cop shot a 12-year-old boy to death in Cleveland—and community leaders are tired of waiting for prosecutors to act. They plan to use a little-known and little-used Ohio law to go directly to a judge to have the officers involved arrested for the murder of Tamir Rice, the New York Times reports. The leaders plan to bypass police and prosecutors by filing citizens' affidavits today. "Here we are taking some control of the process as citizens," Walter Madison, a lawyer for the Rice family, tells the Times. "We are going to participate without even changing the law," he adds, noting that similar cases that went to grand juries ended up "unfavorable to the families." Community leaders say that there's a conflict of interest in officer-involved shooting cases because cops work closely with prosecutors, the Times notes, but authorities say the Rice case will end up before a grand jury even if there is an arrest. A spokesman for the prosecutor tells Cleveland.com that the grand jury "ultimately makes the charging decision in all fatal use of deadly force cases that involve law enforcement officers." In a statement to Fox 8, the chief of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association called the move an "attempt to totally disrespect and disregard our justice system" and warned such efforts would worsen the "increasing lawlessness of an emboldened criminal element." (Ex-cop Michael Slager was indicted yesterday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man.)