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Mom responds after Cleveland blames boy for his death

The mother of a 12-year-old boy who had a pellet gun when he was fatally shot by Cleveland police called the city's response to the family's federal lawsuit "very disrespectful."

Tamir Rice's mother, Samaria Rice, and her attorneys held a news conference Tuesday a day after Mayor Frank Jackson apologized for wording in a court document in which the city said the boy died as a result of his own actions.

"The city's answer was very disrespectful to my son," Rice said.

Jackson said Cleveland's response was poorly worded and offensive, and the city will modify the wording of its defense. However, Samaria Rice said she still had not received an apology for the killing of her son from the police department or the city.

"If an apology was on the table, I would accept it with some actions and people being held accountable for it," she said.

Tamir was shot in the abdomen by an officer responding to a call about someone with a firearm near a recreation center on Nov. 22. The officer fired just after the police car stopped nearby, and the confrontation was captured on surveillance video. Tamir had been carrying what turned out to be an airsoft-type gun that shoots non-lethal plastic pellets.

During Tuesday's press conference, family attorney Walter Madison replayed a video of the incident with a synchronized stopwatch embedded on the screen. He says Tamir was shot .792 seconds after the police car stopped.

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