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CINCINNATI (AP) — Federal authorities said Friday they still are reviewing the case of a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black motorist in Cincinnati in 2015.
U.S. Attorney's spokeswoman Jennifer Thornton confirmed to The Associated Press that a review of "the facts" continues, but declined to comment. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman said last year the review would determine the potential for prosecution of University of Cincinnati Officer Ray Tensing for civil rights violations in the slaying of Sam DuBose.
The review began after state murder charges were dropped following two mistrials because of deadlocked juries. Tensing's attorney, Stewart Mathews, said Friday he hadn't heard any update on where the review stands.
"We're in a holding pattern," Mathews said.
In what Mathews called "one more step in that process" of Tensing's efforts to put the fatal shooting behind him, the university on Thursday announced a settlement totaling about $344,000 in back pay and legal fees of a union grievance over his firing.
Tensing, now 28, shot DuBose, 43, in the head after pulling him over for a missing front license plate July 19, 2015. He testified that he believed his life was in in danger when DuBose tried to drive away during the traffic stop.
A federal judge in South Carolina in December sentenced a former North Charleston police officer, Michael Slager, to 20 years in prison after a guilty plea to a civil rights violation in the 2015 shooting death of Walter Scott, a black man who ran from the white officer after a traffic stop. Slager's state murder trial ended in mistrial.
Glassman and the Justice Department reviewed the Aug. 5, 2014, fatal shooting of John Crawford III, a black man, by police in a Wal-Mart store in Beavercreek, Ohio, and concluded it last year without any charges.
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