Samaria Rice positioned herself behind the podium and gazed into the audience as she recounted her journey since the death of her 12-year-old son Tamir Rice, who was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer in November 2014.
“These two years have been the worst two years of my life,” Rice said.
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“I’ve had many sleepless nights. First, I seen Trayvon Martin, then I seen Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tanisha Anderson, John Crawford III and then I seen Tamir,” she said, referring to other African-Americans who were killed by police officers or died while in police custody. “And my world just turned around.”
Tamir’s death, along with the deaths of several other African-Americans who were killed by police officers or in police custody, sparked a wave of protests against police shootings across the nation.
Dozens of people filed into the Bruce W. Bergland Auditorium at Indiana University Northwest on Thursday evening as Tamir’s mother spoke about the death of her son, the current climate of law enforcement, and her goals moving forward.
“I just want to know her thoughts and feelings as far as police brutality,” said Taylor McFadden, a freshman at IUN. “With what happened with her son, I just wanted to know from someone who lived it how does it feel.”
Samaria Rice said there are several goals she wants to accomplish in the near future. Her first objective is a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and President Barack Obama.
“I’m not understanding why they’re refusing to meet with me when my son is international,” she said.
She also said she wants the two officers that responded to Tamir’s 911 call to be fired, and she wants her son’s case tried in court after an Ohio grand jury decided not to indict officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.
“Prosecutor Timothy McGinty sabotaged Tamir’s case,” she said, referring to the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prosecutor. “He did not advocate for my family.”
Rice said the death of her son prompted her to become a champion of civil rights and speak out against police brutality and gun violence.
“I will continue the dialogue of racism,” she said. “I will continue to talk against the government until we see change. I don’t have to be quiet. I’m still raising three other children and a grandbaby. How can I be quiet? I have to save their lives.”
Samaria also started the Tamir Rice Justice Foundation in honor of her son.
“I will continue to fight for change with the foundation, which has been a joy to develop in memory of my son,” she said.
“I take the skills I was teaching my son and implementing in his life giving him structure and guidance, and I implement them in the foundation, which will have mentoring programs, music and performing arts that will allow these children to express themselves.”
Kadeem Fuller, a student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said he traveled over 130 miles to hear Rice’s story.
“It’s a story of strength, perseverance and dealing with state violence on the most intimate level,” he said.
Fuller added that he appreciated Rice’s authenticity and courage to voice her opinion.
“Her realness is the first thing that stuck out to me,” he said. “She says what she wants to say, and there’s no filter. It’s her unapologetically, and I think that’s what I admire most about her.”
Moving forward, Rice said, she will continue fighting for change.
“I will lead this country into making change,” she said. “Until I die, this is my calling. This is what I have to do. This is Tamir’s legacy. This is Tamir’s voice.”
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