Ex-officer pleads not guilty in campus shooting death
CINCINNATI — A University of Cincinnati police officer who fatally shot a motorist during a traffic stop pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder charges and was ordered jailed on $1 million bond.
People in the courtroom audience erupted into cheers and clapped when former officer Ray Tensing’s bond was set at $1 million, drawing the ire of Judge Megan Shanahan.
“Ladies and gentlemen! This is a courtroom,” the judge said sharply.
Mr. Tensing also is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the July 19 shooting of Samuel DuBose of Cincinnati, who was stopped for not having a front license plate.
Defense attorney Stewart Mathews said there are two sides to the case and that the much-viewed body camera video of the traffic stop can be interpreted differently from the prosecutor’s version.
He described Mr. Tensing as “very depressed” and “in shock,” adding that the officer felt “like he’s been run over by a train from the start of this case.”
Mr. Tensing, 25, was fired soon after he was indicted. He had been with the University of Cincinnati for more than a year after starting police work in 2011 in a Cincinnati suburb. He has a University of Cincinnati degree in criminal justice.
Mr. DuBose’s death comes after months of national debate about police use of force against AfricanAmericans, especially when the force resulted in death. The 43-year-old Mr. DuBose was black; Mr. Tensing is white. But authorities so far have not focused on race as a factor in the slaying.
Two campus police officers who responded to the shooting have been put on paid leave, university spokeswoman Michele Ralston confirmed Thursday.
Phillip Kidd and David Lindenschmidt are on leave while the university police department conducts an internal investigation, she said.
Body camera footage from the two officers was released Thursday. Mr. Kidd can be heard saying he saw Mr. Tensing being dragged. And in other footage, Mr. Lindenschmidt can be heard telling another officer that Mr. Tensing “went down, got tangled in the car and drew his gun and fired.”
In Mr. Lindenschmidt’s video, Mr. Tensing can be seen on the ground and then getting up. But there is no indication on the video of how of how he ended up on the ground.
Joe Deters, the prosecutor who brought the murder charge, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that both Mr. Kidd and Mr. Lindenschmidt testified before the grand jury that indicted Mr. Tensing.
Mr. Deters said the university should disband its department and turn over policing to the city.
University President Santa Ono rejected that, saying campus police duties are different than those of a city department.
“You need to have a knowledge of how to interact with students,” he told the Associated Press in an interview Thursday. “There are many different issues and federal guidelines that have to be followed that are very specific to campus policing.”
After he was stopped, Mr. DuBose failed to provide a driver’s license and refused to get out of the car.
“I didn’t even do nothing,” he can be heard telling Mr. Tensing. Mr. DuBose held up what appears to be a bottle of gin.
Mr. Tensing has said he thought he was going to be dragged under the car and “feared for his life,” according to Mr. Mathews.
Mr. Tensing fired once, striking Mr. DuBose in the head.
“This officer was wrong,” Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said Wednesday, adding that officers “have to be held accountable” when they’re in the wrong.
Mr. Deters scoffed at Mr. Tensing’s claim that he was dragged by Mr. DuBose’s car, saying the officer “purposely killed him.” Using words such as “asinine” and “senseless,” the veteran prosecutor known for tough stands on urban crime called it “a chicken crap” traffic stop.
“It was so unnecessary,” Mr. Deters said. He added that Mr. Tensing “should never have been a police officer.”
Mr. Deters has said the officer should have just let Mr. DuBose drive off.