Ex-UC officer in fatal shooting bonds out of jail

Ray Tensing posted 10 percent of a $1 million bond just before 7 p.m. Thursday. A Hamilton County judge set the bond during Tensing’s morning arraignment, when he pleaded not guilty.

KEY DETAILS

UPDATE @ 7:10 p.m. (July 30):

During Tensing’s arraignment, his lawyer asked for a lower bond because his client was not a flight risk, he has no criminal convictions and has family in the area. But Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Megan E. Shanahan countered that because Tensing faces the possibility of life in prison, she was obligated to set his bond at $1 million. With that, DuBose’s relatives and supporters in the courtroom applauded.

UC Police Officer Phillip Kidd was placed on administrative leave after he backed Tensing’s account of the fatal encounter with 43-year-old Samuel DuBose at a traffic stop in Mount Auburn on July 19, according to our news partner WCPO 9 On Your Side. Kidd’s officer in training, David Lindenschmidt, was also placed on administrative leave, UC President Santa Ono said Thursday.

FIRST REPORT (July 29)

The deadly shot a University of Cincinnati police officer fired at DuBose’s head, killing him, was “unnecessary” and “senseless” the Hamilton County prosecutor said Wednesday.

Prosecutor Joseph Deters announced a grand jury has indicted former UC police officer Ray Tensing on one count of murder DuBose, who was unarmed, during a minor traffic stop. This is the first time a Cincinnati officer has been charged with murder while on duty.

Deters described the video as heartbreaking for him to watch and lambasted Tensing for performing the “most asinine act” he’s ever seen from a police officer in his 30-year career.

“This is the first time that we thought, ‘this is without question a murder,” Deters said of reviewing the video.

He said the “chicken-crap stop” over a license plate turned deadly for no reason.

“This might happen in Afghanistan,” Deters said. “This just doesn’t happen in the United States. People don’t get shot for a traffic stop, unless they’re violent toward a police officer, and, he wasn’t.”

The indictment also included a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. The murder charge carries a possible penalty of 15 years to life while the lesser charge voluntary manslaughter carries a charge of three to 11 years.

Tensing, 25, turned himself in on the charges today at 2:09 p.m., an hour after the indictment was announced.

Stewart Mathews, the lawyer representing Tensing said he expected an indictment to be handed down today. He told our news partners at WCPO 9 On Your Side earlier this week that Tensing was depressed over the shooting.

“He’s not doing well,” Mathews said. “He feels terrible about it. He didn’t become a police officer to go out and shoot anyone.”

University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono also announced the college fired Tensing, who had been on paid administrative leave since the July 19 incident, Wednesday.

Ten days after DuBose’s death, Deters Wednesday released a 27-minute video of the traffic stop and subsequent shooting. Residents for days had demanded the video be released and Cincinnati media outlets had even sued Deters over it.

The video, which was filmed from Tensing’s body camera, shows that the officer fired the fatal shot just two minutes after he got out of his car to talk with DuBose.

Tensing asked several times for DuBose, who he pulled over because he was driving a car without a front license plate, for his driver’s license but DuBose could not produce it.

About two minutes into the stop, Tensing reached for the car door but DuBose pulled back.

“I didn’t even do nothing,” DuBose, who was wearing a red striped shirt and red hat, said as he pulled back on the car door.

Tensing then reached into the car and told DuBose to “go ahead and take your seat belt off.”

While Tensing reached for the seat belt with his left hand DuBose writhed in his car seat. The video then shows Tensing pulled out a gun with his right hand and shot DuBose in the head.

Deters said Wednesday that DuBose was killed instantly and his foot hit the car’s accelerator, sending the car several feet down the road and into a nearby yard.

“I thought he was going to run me over,” Tensing can be heard saying dozens of times to a fellow officer who later arrived on scene.

But Deters Wednesday accused Tensing of simply losing his temper during the traffic stop.

“He purposely killed him,” Deters said of Tensing. “He should have never been a police officer.”

Deters said that DuBose, who at one point handed Tensing an unopened bottle of gin, wasn’t at all violent toward the officer.

“He wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder … If he’s starting roll away just, seriously, let him go. You don’t have to shoot him in the head,” Deters said.

Murder indictments against police officers are rare.

Protesters across the country — from Ferguson, Missouri to Beavercreek, Ohio — have called for indictments to be issued against white police officers who have shot unarmed black men in recent months. DuBose is black and Tensing is white.

But few cases of those cases have ended with criminal charges.

“Over the last year, we’ve had these situations in Staten Island, Ferguson, Florida, Beavercreek, Cleveland and Baltimore. So many times, people said Cincinnati has made made a lot of improvements, not perfection, but improvements,” Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said. “We, for now, can be a role model for the whole country on the police side and the quick pursuit of justice.”

Tensing’s lawyer, Stewart Mathews, did not return request for comment Wednesday but he told WCPO 9 On Your Side that he felt Deters had thrown his client “under the bus” during the 20-minute press conference held at the prosecutor’s office Wednesday.