Two Year's Later: the Site of Tamir Rice's Shooting Begins Deconstruction
Nearly two years after Tamir Rice's death, the gazebo where the 12-year-old boy was shot by a Cleveland police officer is deconstructed before heading to Chicago museum.
The wooden posts that stand between the parking lot and the playground have been painted over with messages of love and loss. A butterfly garden is now thriving. And today, underneath thick overcast skies, construction workers began dismantling the gazebo where Rice fell.
Standing nearby, Rice's cousin Latonya Goldsby, surveyed the deconstruction in silence. Samaria Rice, Tamir's mother, was not present.
"She's still dealing with her own grief, her own recovery and coping with the loss of her child," says Goldsby. "This is something she wanted because it's a constant reminder of the tragedy of what happened to her son."
According to Goldsby, the family was not notified of the gazebo's deconstruction by the city of Cleveland. Instead, they found out through local media coverage.
"It's kind of heartbreaking that they want to remove this stain of what happened to Tamir but they don't want to be accountable for it," she says.
The gazebo, along with its concrete benches, will be relocated to Chicago's Stony Island Arts Bank museum, where it will be reconstructed, preserved and displayed along with other artifacts from families who've suffered losses due to police-involved shootings.
The bench on which a mound of stuffed animals remained on display for the last two years will stay in possession of Samaria Rice and the Tamir Rice Foundation. Plans for a memorial to be erected in the space are still in preliminary planning.
"There is an emptiness," says Goldsby. "The only peace I can find in this is that it gives his mom a little peace of mind and a little bit of closure."
