Associated Press

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The families of two black people fatally shot by city police renewed their requests Tuesday for independent investigations into the officers’ actions while describing the emotional toll of losing their loved ones.

Relatives of Tyre King, 13, and Henry Green, 23, sought to define them beyond details released in police records.

Green was “a typical kid” who played basketball, ran track and loved a good prank, his mother said. Tyre was a boy with many interests, mischievous, a “crumb snatcher” and a “mama’s boy – not in a bad way,” his grandmother recalled.

Witnesses have contradicted information from police in both cases, said attorney Sean Walton, who is representing both families. He said he planned to send letters to city officials Tuesday urging them to join Tyre’s family in requesting a U.S. Department of Justice review of the shooting. Letters were sent earlier on behalf of Green’s family, he said.

“We would hope that we could stand with our city officials and seek the truth together,” Walton said. “Unfortunately, the ball’s not in our court right now.”

A spokeswoman for Democratic Mayor Andrew Ginther said he has “great confidence” in the ability of the Columbus Division of Police to investigate the more recent shooting, of Tyre, but added the department would cooperate if the Department of Justice chooses to get involved.

At a news conference Tuesday, Tyre’s grandmother and Green’s mother explained what the fatal shootings meant to them.

“I’m 63,” said Dearrea King, Tyre’s grandmother. “Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought that I would see any of my grandchildren laid to rest.”