Gazebo Where Tamir Rice Was Killed by Police Will Move to Chicago

After a 12-year-old black boy with a toy pellet gun was shot to death in a Cleveland park by a white police officer, the gazebo where the boy was playing became a shrine of sorts and a focal point of protest and demonstration.

The gazebo now will become a memorial exhibit in Chicago.

On Wednesday morning, the simple structure at Cuddell Commons will be dismantled and trucked to Chicago's Stony Island Arts Bank for reassembly and display to commemorate this chapter of African-American history. The move to the South Shore community was made possibly by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates.

In the weeks and months after the November 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice, stuffed animals, flowers and signs were brought to the gazebo in his memory. People scrawled personal and political messages in this place.

Protesters brought tombstones, too, and placards and voices crying out for justice. Once a simple shelter for a few picnic tables where people could rest and watch their children play, the gazebo became a rallying place for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Tamir Rice was shot to death one afternoon when a Cleveland police officer, responding to a radio call of a "of a male black sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people," rolled up and shot him dead within two seconds of leaving his patrol car. Rice had been playing in the gazebo with a toy pellet gun. The shooting was recorded on video. Witnesses said the officer never issued a warning to Rice to drop the gun.

The officer, Timothy Loehmann, let the boy lie in the grass for four minutes without rendering first aid or summoning help. An FBI agent at a nearby bank robbery came to the scene and was the first to attempt first aid on the child, who was shot once in the chest. A Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to indict the officer and his partner. The prosecutor, Timothy J. McGinty, lost his bid for re-election in March 2016. The city settled a lawsuit with Rice's family for $6 million.

After the shooting, Rice's mother, Samaria Rice, wanted the gazebo torn down. The city set plans in motion to do just that. Activists protested the planned destruction of the gazebo and the city delayed. Former city councilman Jay Westbrook has been working with the Stony Island Arts Bank.

Samaria Rice, who now tries to draw attention to police brutality and unprosecuted police violence, changed her mind about destroying the gazebo after realizing the historic importance of the site.

She told the Chicago Tribune she hopes the gazebo can find a new life in Chicago as a place for "mediation and reconciliation."

Tamir Rice's death, along with the deaths of Chicago's Laquan McDonald, New York's Eric Garner, and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and others, have fueled the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Stony Island Arts Bank describes itself as a "hybrid gallery, media archive, library and community center" focused on South Side Chicago history and culture. The decision to bring the Cleveland gazebo to Chicago was announced in August.

photo: Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office