ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A court document appeared online yesterday that has led to an apology by the mayor of Cleveland. It was a $500 court claim against the estate of Tamir Rice. He's the 12-year-old boy who was killed in a police shooting in 2014. The document was first published by Cleveland's SCENE Magazine. Brian Bull from member station WCPN has more.
BRIAN BULL, BYLINE: The claim was for emergency medical services performed after Rice was shot by a local police officer. News spread of the document last night and Rice family attorney Subodh Chandra responded.
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SUBODH CHANDRA: The callousness, insensitivity and poor judgment required for the city to send a bill, its own police officers having slain 12-year-old Tamir, is breathtaking. This adds insult to homicide.
BULL: Today, people at the park where Rice was shot were talking about the controversy including Mauri Carnill (ph).
MAURI CARNILL: Knowing that that's someone's child they lost and they still have to come out they pockets and pay medical bills and things like that, that's kind of messed up.
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FRANK JACKSON: We'll start off apologizing to the Rice family if in fact this has added to any grief or pain that they may have.
BULL: That's Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. Jackson said the filing in probate court was in response to a records request made by the executor of the Rice estate.
JACKSON: No bill was ever sent to the Rice family and no bill was intended to go to the Rice family.
BULL: The mayor said it was a routine process that, all the same, needed to be red-flagged and withdrawn rather than included in court documents.
MIKE BENZA: It doesn't appear, however, that the city did this until after the administrator asked them to generate the bill.
BULL: Mike Benza's a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.
BENZA: I don't see that you can say for sure this was a attempt to cause further injury or to embarrass the family or any of those other things.
BULL: Following today's press conference by the city, the Rice family attorney issued a statement describing the entire incident as, quote, "deeply disturbing." For NPR News, I'm Brian Bull in Cleveland. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.