Tamir Rice was shot dead by police and now his family are being asked to pay $500 for his ambulance ride

The city of Cleveland has asked the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot dead by police in 2014, to pay back expenses for the ambulance that took the boy's body to hospital.

The Cleveland Scene reports that the city filed a creditor's claim against Rice's family for $500 - $450 for "advance life support" and $50 for petrol - for an unpaid bill "for emergency medical services rendered as the decedent’s last dying expense under Ohio Revised Code.”

Rice was fatally shot by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann for carrying a toy gun which a 911 caller had described as "probably fake".

He testified that he thought Rice was 18. A grand jury failed to indict him in December, which means the officer will face no criminal charges.

In a statement given to Cleveland Scene, the Rice family's lawyer Subodh Chandra said:

The callousness, insensitivity, and poor judgment required for the city to send a bill after its own police officers killed a 12-year-old child is breathtaking.

This adds insult to homicide.