The shooting death of nineteen-year-old Timothy DeWayne Thomas, Jr. by Cincinnati, Ohio Police Department Patrolmen Stephen Roach during an attempted arrest for non-violent misdemeanors in April 2001 focused national attention on the deaths of unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police and security guards. Thomas’s death also helped fuel the Cincinnati Riot of 2001 and partly inspired the Black Lives Matter Movement twelve years later. Timothy Thomas was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 25, 1981. Much of his early life is unknown. However, Thomas was unmarried and the father of one child at the time of his death. Thomas had a history of interactions with Cincinnati law enforcement officials.  Over the previous three years, he received numerous traffic citations and was pulled over eleven times by the police. Most of the twenty-one traffic citations were for minor infractions, including not wearing a seatbelt or driving without a license. On April 7, 2001, the Cincinnati Police attempted to arrest Thomas at a time when he was wanted for fourteen misdemeanor counts.  They spotted him in the Over the Rhine neighborhood. Thomas saw the approaching police officers and started running away from them. A chase ensued around the neighborhood for a … Continue reading Timothy DeWayne Thomas, Jr. (1981-2001)