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#Fired attorneys withdraw from representing Tamir Rice estate in lawsuit, court records show

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Three attorneys who were representing the estate of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a lawsuit against the city of Cleveland stepped down Friday, according to a court filing from the estate's new attorneys.

Attorneys Benjamin Crump sent a letter of resignation Friday on behalf of himself, Daryl Parks and Walter Madison, the filing shows. It also shows that the lawyers still represent Leonard Warner, the boy's father, in the wrongful death lawsuit.

New York law firm Emery Celli Brinckeerhoff Abady and Cleveland attorney Subodh Chandra now represent the estate. Administrator Douglas Winston hired the team after Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, retained them as counsel.

The court filing asks Chief U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. to appoint the firm of Emery Celli Brinckeerhoff Abady and Chandra as the new lawyers representing the estate in the lawsuit.

The filing could signal the end of what was becoming a bitter public battle over who would represent the Tamir estate and family's interests. The emails attached to the court filing show that Jonathan Abady, one of the new attorneys, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Parks, Crump and Madison the day before they resigned.

A spokesman for Parks and Crump, whose office is in Tallahassee, Florida, did not immediately return a phone call Friday. Madison, an Akron attorney, declined to comment.

Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir at Cudell Recreation Center on Nov. 22, when the child was playing with an airsoft pellet gun with the orange safety tip removed. He died at the hospital the next day.

The lawsuit was filed in December against the city and the officers involved in Tamir's shooting.