$500 Ambulance Bill Charged to Tamir Rice's Estate Withdrawn
City officials said the bill was generated automatically.
— -- The estate of Tamir Rice will not be required to pay a $500 ambulance bill for which the city of Cleveland, Ohio, had filed a claim in court. Cleveland officials said today the bill had been automatically generated and that the claim has now been closed.
Rice was shot dead by a Cleveland police officer in November 2014 while he was holding a toy gun. Cleveland officials said Rice's estate had requested, as legally required, a billing statement for all services rendered to Rice in connection to the shooting. That led to the city’s being made aware that the estate could potentially pay for emergency medical services provided to Rice which Medicaid did not cover, triggering an automatic process that filed the $500 claim to the estate according to city officials. Rice's family never received a bill and the city has absorbed the remaining balance.
The $500 charge was listed as his "last dying expense," ABC affiliate WEWS in Cleveland reported.
An Ohio grand jury declined to indict two police officers in his death.