Updated: Cleveland Asked Tamir Rice’s Family to Pay $500 for Their Child’s Last Ambulance Ride

Now city officials say it was all a mistake.

Tony Dejak/AP

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Update, Thursday, February 11, 2016: Cleveland officials said they are withdrawing the claim saying the Rice family owed $500 for their son’s last ambulance ride. At a news conference on Thursday, officials explained that the claim had been been closed in February 2015 after the city absorbed the cost, but that it was regenerated after the family’s attorney asked the city to forward a billing statement for services provided on the day of the shooting. Mayor Frank Jackson apologized to the Rice family, saying they never intended to issue a bill.

 

Cleveland officials are holding a news conference to address a claim filed Wednesday notifying the Tamir Rice estate that it owes the city money for the boy’s ambulance ride and medical services he received after he was shot by a police officer.

Posted by cleveland.com on Thursday, February 11, 2016

Less than two months after a grand jury decided not to indict the Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, the city has filed a claim saying the boy owed $500 “for emergency medical services rendered as the decedent’s last dying expense.” In response to the claim, a Rice family attorney told the Cleveland Scene that the move “displays a new pinnacle of callousness and insensitivity.”

The mayor’s office could not be reached immediately for comment.

Here is the full text of the claim:

 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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