TENSING

DuBose's mom on Tensing: `Like he was the one murdered'

Mark Curnutte
Cincinnati
Audrey DuBose, Sam DuBose's mother, hugs a Black Lives Matter supporter outside of the Hamilton County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. DuBose left Ray Tensing's trial early that afternoon during his testimony.

For the first time in more than 15 months, the community heard Tuesday morning from Ray Tensing.

The former University of Cincinnati police officer testified in his defense. Responding to questions from his attorney, Tensing told of his desire to protect and serve before finally going into detail about the fatal traffic stop he made at 6:20 p.m. July 19, 2015, on a Mount Auburn Street.

Tensing, pausing to fight back tears, at times even weeping, told of how he fired a single shot at the head of Sam DuBose because Tensing feared DuBose was trying to run him over.

For Audrey DuBose, Sam DuBose's mother, the testimony was too much to bear.

Tensing's aggressive history as UC cop

At a break, she left the courtroom and walked outside of the Hamilton County Courthouse on Main Street, where she joined about a dozen Black Lives Matter demonstrators. For a few minutes, she stood in a short line, holding a cardboard sign that read, "Justice for Sam DuBose."

Asked for her reaction to Tensing's testimony, she said, "Sick."

Then she went silent for several seconds.

"Just sick."

Audrey DuBose has appeared at dozens of public events in the last 15 months, many of them with Black Lives Matter: Cincinnati. She has made herself available to the media. Onlookers have marveled at her grace and eloquent reliance on her Christian faith.

Tuesday, her anger showed.

"Like he was the one murdered," she said. "Like it was done to him. It's my son who's dead. Not him."

Audrey DuBose hugged a few of the Black Lives Matter members — including Brian Taylor — she has gotten to know over the past several months. Then she walked away from the courthouse. She'd had her fill.

Taylor had bought a box of doughnuts for demonstrators. As cold rain started to fall, they slid cardboard signs into a large plastic bag.

Tensing: 'I thought he was going to kill me.'

Taylor, one of Black Lives Matter: Cincinnati's steering committee co-chairs, said he'd followed the Tensing testimony in the live Internet feed.

"Despite the facts displayed in the body (camera) video, they were trying to argue the weight of his perception," Taylor said of Tensing. "He was coached. He used extreme terms to describe the alleged movement of the car, words like `rocketed' and `smashed.' "

Taylor said the defense's approach is common in police brutality cases. Tensing said he fired the fatal shot to DuBose's head because DuBose was attempting to kill Tensing with his car by running over him.

"It's not new," Taylor said. "They try to make the aggressor the victim and the victim the aggressor."

Several of Sam DuBose's family members have been in the courtroom throughout the trial. DaShonda Reid, Sam DuBose's fiancée, to whom he proposed two days before his death, said she and many of his relatives felt good about the case. The defense rested Tuesday. Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday morning.

"We feel very strong and confident about a conviction," Reid said later Tuesday in a phone interview.

She and other family members have complimented the work of the prosecution team, headed by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who cross-examined Tensing on Tuesday. Reid said Deters poked holes in Tensing's story and exposed contradictions between his testimony and bodycam footage.

Under his uniform the day he shot DuBose, Tensing had on a black tourist T-shirt bearing the Confederate flag. Nearly 75 percent of the individuals he arrested were black, higher than any other UC officer, per Enquirer analysis of statistics provided by UC.

"You've seen the overwhelming amount of evidence," Reid said. "We have a lying, racist defendant."