A University of Cincinnati police officer was indicted on murder charges Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a driver this month in a traffic stop that a prosecutor called "totally unwarranted" and "senseless."
In the indictment handed up by a grand jury in Hamilton County, officer Ray Tensing is accused of killing the driver, Samuel DuBose, during a traffic stop near the campus on July 19.
At a news conference, county prosecutor Joseph Deters said Tensing "purposely killed" DuBose after the officer lost his temper in what he called a "chicken crap" traffic stop.
"I've been doing this for 30 years," Deters told reporters. "This is the most asinine act I've ever seen a police officer make, totally unwarranted." A body-camera video of the shooting also was being released.
"He purposely killed him," Deters said of Tensing. "He should never have been a police officer."
Tensing surrendered Wednesday after his indictment, according to reports.
The death of DuBose, who was black, at the hands of Tensing, who is white, joined a string of recent episodes -- including ones in New York City; Cleveland; North Charleston, S.C.; and Ferguson, Mo. -- that have raised questions about law enforcement officers' use of force and the role of race in policing. Video cameras have recorded many of the episodes and nonlethal encounters like the arrest of Sandra Bland, who died three days after her arrest in a Texas jail cell, offering disturbing evidence of the confrontations that often contradicts the accounts of the people involved.
Deters, who also met with DuBose's family, said he was shocked by the video.
"I realize what this was going to mean to our community, and it really broke my heart because it's just bad," Deters said.
"I feel so sorry for this family and what they lost," he said. "And I feel sorry for the community, too."
DuBose, 43, a father of 10, was just south of the university campus, driving a green 1998 Honda Accord without a front license plate, when Tensing began following him, according to an account that Jason Goodrich, chief of the university police, gave Monday. Moments later, the officer pulled over DuBose's vehicle on a side street, a few blocks from the campus, Goodrich said.
He said that when Tensing asked for a driver's license, DuBose handed him a bottle of alcohol instead. But Goodrich gave no more insight into the confrontation that followed, in which the officer fired one shot that struck DuBose in the head.
Another university officer who arrived shortly after the shooting, Eric Weibel, wrote in his report that Tensing told him that "he was being dragged by the vehicle and had to fire his weapon," and that "Officer Tensing stated that he was almost run over." A third officer, he wrote, said he had seen Tensing being dragged.
"Looking at Officer Tensing's uniform, I could see that the back of his pants and shirt looked as if it had been dragged over a rough surface," Weibel wrote.
In an audio recording of police radio communications, after Tensing shouted "Shots fired! Shots fired," a dispatcher asked who was injured. It is not clear if he replied "I am injured" or "I'm uninjured."
"I almost got run over by the car," the officer said. "He took off on me. I discharged one round. Shot the man in the head."
Another officer can later be heard saying, "It was Officer Tensing that was injured."
At the news conference Wednesday, Deters dismissed Tensing's claim that he was dragged by the car. Tensing "fell backward after he shot" DuBose in the head, Deters said.
The University of Cincinnati closed its main campus in anticipation of grand jury action in the case.
A Section on 07/30/2015