The attorney for the family of Samuel DuBose — the unarmed black man shot dead during a routine traffic stop — appeared on
Newsmax TV on Thursday and dramatically scolded the white University of Cincinnati cop who inexplicably pulled the trigger.
"If you're afraid or can't handle the stress of being a police officer, then you shouldn't be," Mark O'Mara said in a terse message to Officer Ray Tensing, during an interview on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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O'Mara, who successfully defended George Zimmerman against murder charges in the death of Trayvon Martin, made the comment after Tensing pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming he "feared for his life" and acted in self-defense.
Tensing was indicted after video from his body camera showed him shooting DuBose in the head after stopping him on July 19 for not having a license plate on the front bumper of his car.
While Tensing claims he acted in self-defense after being dragged by the car as DuBose tried to flee, the video seems to show the officer firing almost instantly after the vehicle started moving. The video also appears to show Tensing falling backward after firing the shot and not being pinned by the car.
Tensing's story doesn't hold water, according to O'Mara.
"We know that he intentionally took the life of Sam. That's one and that's primary.
Secondarily, when you have somebody in a position of authority and of trust as a police officer is and has to be, the violation of that trust makes it, in the family's opinion, even that much more significant," he said.
"So he'll get the benefit of the doubt in front of a jury, he should get no benefit in the criminal justice system up until that point."
Tensing, 25, is being held on $1 million bond, which O'Mara said "seems to be the standard" for a murder case in Ohio.
"I would have liked it to have been higher only because we don't want him out and when you have to pay 10 percent of a bond — $100,000 to get out — he may be able to do that and we truly want him in jail pending trial," O'Mara said.
O'Mara said a key issue is why did a seemingly cordial interaction between Tensing and DuBose suddenly turn deadly?
"I would like to find out the true answer to that. I have to look at the facts that are available.... We have a police officer who is supposed to be trained to interact with individuals, right?" Mara said.
"Look, if you're afraid of blood, don't become a surgeon. If you're afraid of a courtroom, don't become a lawyer. If you're afraid or can't handle the stress of being a police officer, then you shouldn't be and maybe he hasn't been found out to be who he was in the past.
"I agree that he's cordial, but I could also make an argument that as he's handling that situation, he seems to be handling it with increased animosity. [His] attitude with 'show me the license, show me the license.' He's the one that's supposed to de-escalate the situation, not the opposite."
At a press conference, Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph Deters called DuBose's death "senseless" and "totally unwarranted." Tensing, Deters said, "wasn't dealing with someone who was wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone who didn't have a front license plate. This is, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken crap stop."
O'Mara acknowledged to Malzberg that DuBose, 43, does have a police record with "some 50-something arrests." But, he added, not one of them was for resisting arrest, obstruction of justice or fleeing.
"They were license arrests, pot arrests, things like that. They were nothing anywhere near anything violent, nothing with resisting officers," O'Mara said.
"All I know is when I look at that videotape, I see absolutely no reason why that officer [was] anywhere near that spectrum of use of force that … is anywhere near appropriate to take out your gun.
"And then he lies through his teeth about it when he says he was dragged when the body camera says he wasn't. So we have no credibility."
O'Mara disputes Tensing's claim that he was in fear for his life.
"There was nothing that Sam did to do anything that would have given any reasonable person that kind of fear."
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