White University of Cincinnati police officer is indicted in fatal shooting of black motorist

White University of Cincinnati police officer is indicted in fatal shooting of black motorist

Wednesday, July 29, 2015 1:15 PM EDT

A University of Cincinnati police officer was indicted on murder charges on Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a motorist this month.

In the indictment handed down by a grand jury in Hamilton County, the officer, Ray Tensing, is accused of killing the driver, Samuel Dubose, during a traffic stop near the campus on July 19.

The death of Mr. Dubose, who was black, at the hands of Officer Tensing, who is white, joined a string of recent episodes — in Staten Island, Cleveland, North Charleston, S.C., and Ferguson, Mo., among others — that have raised hard questions about law enforcement use of force, and the role of race in policing. Video cameras have recorded many of the episodes and nonlethal encounters like the arrest of Sandra Bland, who died three days later in a Texas jail cell, offering disturbing evidence of the confrontations that often contradicts the accounts of people involved.

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