Cincinnati Prosecutor Reviewing Police Shooting of Unarmed Black Driver
Officer Ray Tensing pulled over Samuel Dubose, 43, and a father of 13 chuildren, on Sunday after he spotted Dubose’s car without a front plate. Police said the two struggled, and Tensing shot Dubose once in the head.
Cincinnati police investigators said Tensing, who is white, saw Dubose around 6:30 p.m. Sunday and tried to pull him over. After about a mile, Dubose pulled over. Tensing asked to see Dubose’s driver’s license, but instead he handled the officer a bottle of liquor.
When Tensing asked Dubose to get out of the car, they struggled.
“There was a struggle at the door with Mr. Dubose in the vehicle and the officer outside the vehicle, and the vehicle sped away,” Cincinnati police Lt. Col. James Whalen told reporters, adding Tensing fired a single shot that hit Dubose in the head.
Police said Dubose did not have a weapon. Tensing has been placed on administrative leave with pay. He and two other officers who arrived on the scene were interviewed by investigators. Deters said the review of the shooting should be completed by next week.
Dubose had a lengthy criminal record, mostly for misdemeanor drug and trafficking charges. He served time in state prison in 2005 on a marijuana trafficking charge.
Tensing, who is in his mid-20s, was an officer for the village of Greenhills, located outside Cincinnati, before joining the university police in 2014.
Tuesday, Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black said, “This incident didn’t involve a Cincinnati Police Department officer, but it happened in our city and it is our job to ensure this investigation is handled with the attention it deserves. This is a serious situation and I will do everything necessary to ensure the investigation is handled as such.”
Black Lives Matter, created after the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Florida, met following Dubose’s death.
“We don’t believe that things happened as they say,” said Brian Taylor with Black Lives Matter Cincinnati. “Even if the facts that have been stated are accurate, those things don’t justify a man pulling out a gun and shooting Samuel Dubose. It just simply doesn’t.”
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