Never Forgotten: Kyrie Irving Donates $50K To…
Thearon W. Henderson
Wednesday, June 25, marked what would have been the twenty third birthday of Tamir Rice, who was 12 years previous when he was shot to death by former Cleveland Police officer Timothy Loehmann in 2014, while the preteen was enjoying with a toy gun. NBA celebrity Kyrie Irving commemorated the event by donating $50,000 to the Tamir Rice Foundation, a non-profit launched by Tamir’s mom, Samiria Rice.
As The Black Wall Street Times reported, earlier this month, Rice, who wrote that she created her basis to “invest in the growth and enrichment of all children,” launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe asking supporters to donate $23 to honor her son for his twenty third birthday with a purpose of raising $110,000.
“I miss my son so much each and every day. As our family approach Tamir’s 23rd birthday. I’m asking for 23 dollars for 23 years without him . I purchased a building in the city of Cleveland to give back to our inner city youth with art and cultural developments,” she wrote.
According to the Times, the information of Irving’s “quiet” donation was first introduced to gentle by entrepreneur and web developer Kiandria Demone, who praised Samiria for “turning her pain into purpose and pouring back into the community.”
“OMG! When I saw the fundraiser this morning, it was at $1,500 with a goal of $6K. In less than an hour, we got it to $9K just by showing up. Then… Kyrie Irving saw the post. Now she’s raised 10x her goal! I’m so excited for her,” Demone wrote. “I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child, but I truly hope that with our support, she’ll be able to fulfill her dream of honoring Tamir’s legacy.”
Tamir was fatally shot in Cleveland on November 22, 2014. His killer, Loehmann, was never prosecuted for taking the kid’s life. In 2017, he was fired from the division, not because he shot and killed Tamir within seconds of arriving on the scene with his companion, “but for providing false information on his job application,” according to Newsweek. Since then, he had been employed in 2018 by one other police division in Ohio, but he withdrew his software amid protests from Samiria and different advocates for Tamir. In 2022, Loehmann was employed by one other police division in rural Pennsylvania, but, again, he withdrew his software amid protests. Last 12 months, he resigned from a small police division in West Virginia, where he was “hired to work as a probationary police officer and an at-will employee for the city of White Sulphur Springs,” according to NBC News.
“The system is broken because police reform is actually not working,” Samiria mentioned at the time Loehmann was employed in Pennsylvania. “You would hire someone knowing he has murdered a 12-year-old child. How dare you. How dare you do it?”
Exactly!
The post Never Forgotten: Kyrie Irving Donates $50K To Tamir Rice Foundation On What Would’ve Been His twenty third Birthday appeared first on GWN.
