Campus cop pleads ‘not guilty’ in murder case

Ray Tensing and Samuel DuBose

Cincinnati policeman Ray Tensing, 25, pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed black motorist, Samuel DuBose, during a Thursday court hearing that will go down in local history as the first time an officer of the law faced such stiff charges for an on-duty incident.

The judge, meanwhile, set bail at $1 million – a staggering amount that drew cheers from courtroom attendees and a subsequent scolding from the bench, the Hill reported.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a courtroom,” the judge said, the Associated Press reported. “You will conduct yourselves at all times.”

Tensing was arraigned Wednesday on murder charges, and for the grand jury, it was the video from Tensing’s own body camera that proved most telling, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

“It’s an absolute tragedy that anyone would behave in this manner,” Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said, of the video. “It was senseless. It’s just horrible. He purposely killed him.”

Deters also called the incident the “most asinine act I’ve ever seen,” something that just “does not happen in the United States,” the Hill reported.

The video, just released to the public, shows Tensing stopping DuBose, a 43-year-old father of 10, on July 19 for driving without a front license plate. The two exchange a couple minutes of conversation, and then Tensing fires a shot into DuBose’s head.

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Tensing’s attorney, Stew Mathews, told the Cincinnati Enquirer the murder charge on his client was “absolutely unwarranted” and he was shocked by the grand jury’s finding.

“Murder is the purposeful killing of another,” Mathews said, explaining how he expected Tensing to be indicted, but for a lesser charge. “There wasn’t any purpose to kill this fella.”

Tensing could receive up to 15 years in prison if convicted. And at least some officials say the case will only forward the cause of police body cameras around the nation.

“I think it’s safe to say that this case is going to help the cause of body cameras across the country,” Mayor John Cranley said, in the local newspaper. “I think we all hoped that the charges that would come out of the grand jury would match the video. We wanted the right thing to be done.”

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