Cop Pleads Not Guilty: Everything You Need To Know About Ray Tensing

Sam DuBose was shot and killed on July 19 by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing. Little has been shared publicly about either of the two men. Cincinnati riots were feared when Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Deters announced that the grand jury decision in the Tensing case and the officer’s body camera video footage of the fatal shooting would be released on Wednesday.

The Samuel DuBose family watched the Tensing body cam video alone before Deters shared the graphic footage with the media. As previously reported by the Inqusitr, Ray Tensing was charged with both murder and the lesser included charge of voluntary manslaughter and issued a $1 million bail on Thursday morning. Tensing’s attorney, Stew Mathews, insists that body camera footage from officers who responded after Tensing called for help, will vindicate his client’s claims of self-defense. Allegations that the other officers lied in their statements about the Mount Auburn shooting surfaced quickly after the initial body camera footage was released to the public.

Before being employed by the University of Cincinnati, Ray Tensing, 25, was employed by the Greenhills Police Department. The officer reportedly had a clean performance record, no complaints of misconduct, and had not ever pulled his gun while on duty.

A personnel review on April 9 reportedly stated that Tensing “needed more exposure to community interaction outside of traffic enforcement.” The report also reportedly said that Tensing’s record included “two citizen compliments, a letter of appreciation and two peer recognitions.”

The University of Cincinnati gave Tensing high marks in officer safety. The review category includes grading on maintaining control of weapons and in “being prepared to use necessary force.” The officer, who was fired after being indicted for the murder of Sam Dubose, also garnered high scores in the traffic enforcement category. Tensing earned a “satisfactory” grade in the attitude, tolerance, impartiality, and friendliness categories. He was not reportedly graded lower than satisfactory in any UCPD category.

“[Ray Tensing] only meets standards when it comes to community service. I would like to see him interact more with the public outside of traffic enforcement,” the former officer’s reviewer also noted.

He began working at the University of Cincinnati on April 14, 2014, and was promoted to University Law Enforcement Officer 2 on April 27, 2015. Tensing worked at Greenhills from 2011 to 2014. He began as a part-time officers before being given a full-time position.

Greenhills Police Chief Neil Ferdelman shared his recollections about Tensing:

“Ray Tensing was a good police officer for us. There were three performance evaluations on file for him. Two of those were ‘meets standards.’ One was ‘exceeds standards.’ My recollection of Ray is a very friendly guy, very approachable, very interested in law enforcement.”

While attending the police academy class at UC Clermont College, Tensing earned “outstanding student” honors. He graduated from the course on July 24, 2010. The accused murdered earned a degree in criminal justice and graduated cum laude from Clermont College on March 17, 2012.

[Image via: Twitter]