Mother of Cincinnati Police Shooting Victim Calls for Justice in This Heart-Wrenching Statement

“I can forgive him. I can forgive anybody. God forgave us.”


The grief-stricken family of Samuel DuBose, a 43-year-old black man who was shot and killed by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing during a July 19 traffic stop, held an emotional press conference Wednesday following the county prosecutor’s announcement that Tensing would be indicted on a murder charge.

DuBose’s sister Tiera Allen said the release of Tensing’s body-cam video helped vindicate her brother and would make sure he wasn’t painted as a “thug in the neighborhood.” The family’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, spoke of the need for the community to react to the news in a “peaceful and nonaggressive” way. But the most stirring comments came from DuBose’s mother, Audrey DuBose.

“I’m so thankful that everything was uncovered,” she said. “Because I’ve been a servant of the Lord for as long as I’ve been living on Earth. I know the Lord, and I know the wrath of God. Also, I know the love of God. I just thank God everything is being revealed. I knew that he loved my child. I knew that this was going to be uncovered.”

Later, she read from Psalm 93: “The seas have lifted up, Lord, the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breaker of the sea—the Lord on high is mighty,” she recited.

Earlier this month, Tensing pulled over Samuel DuBose for driving without a front license plate. During the stop, DuBose produced a bottle of alcohol and failed to give the officer his driver’s license. The rest of the details of the shooting were somewhat vague until Tensing’s body-cam footage was released today as Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced Tensing’s indictment.

“I can forgive him,” Audrey DuBose said of Tensing. “I can forgive anybody. God forgave us.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate