On Monday morning, the state of Ohio officially dropped the charges against former University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man.
"He had his finger on the trigger, and the car maybe moved 3 or 4 inches and he shot him in the head, and I think that's wrong," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said.
Tensing was tried for murder and voluntary manslaughter twice by the state of Ohio, and the jury deadlocked both times with the judge ultimately declaring two mistrials.
Now that the county prosecutor has decided not to try Tensing a third time at the state level, he's pushing the Department of Justice to get involved.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin C. Glassman said he will review the Tensing case to see if there are grounds for federal civil rights charges, but he has not announced whether he will charge Tensing with any crime.
To be clear, convicting an officer of federal civil rights charges is in many cases more difficult than convicting someone at the state level. In this case, it would require the prosecution to prove that not only was Tensing wrong for shooting Samuel DuBose, but that his actions were also racially motivated.
