Posted on November 15, 2022

Ethan Liming’s Dad Breaks Silence, Says Grand Jury Reducing Charges Is Not Justice for Son’s Fatal Beating

Tracy Carloss, WEWS, November 8, 2022

Bill Liming says he doesn’t feel like he can remain silent any longer. His son, Ethan Liming, was a star athlete, an honor roll student and a rising senior. Summer vacation had just started when the 17-year-old was brutally beaten and killed. Now, months later, his father feels like he is being victimized by the justice system.

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Ethan and his three friends drove to the I Promise School parking lot in Akron. Liming said his son and another friend sat in the car while the two others got out. Police said that’s when a water bead was fired from a toy gun; it came from a Splatrball Water Bead Blaster aimed at a group of young men playing basketball. It was part of a TikTok challenge, according to Liming.

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“When they figured out that they were not being shot by a real gun, they decided to go and confront Ethan and all of his friends who were in the car,” said Liming.

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Back in June, Akron police said race was not a factor in the killing.

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“I would like to believe race doesn’t play a role in this. I’m married to a Filipino woman. She’s got Black cousins. When we get together for extended family gatherings for birthdays, graduation parties for holidays, we’re a beautiful picture of what we hope to be a society. But when I asked Brian LoPrinzi in the initial prosecutor’s meeting I had with him, I asked him if race made a difference, if my son’s skin color made a difference in the way in which they are approaching it, and he said yes,” said Liming.

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“A source who was at the initial prosecutor’s meeting between the detectives and the prosecutors describe the prosecutor’s meeting as being very contentious,” Liming said. “Some of the prosecutors wanting felonious assault charges and murder charges, others basically wanted no charges at all, with one of the prosecutors saying that Ethan received ‘hood justice,’ which was a new term to me. I was unfamiliar with the terminology ‘hood justice,’ I guess implying Ethan got what he deserved.”

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Since June 2, 2022, Liming said his family has been living the nightmare of the killing of Ethan; they’ve been harassed and received hateful emails.

“We’ve received emails celebrating the fact that my son’s head was crushed like a watermelon and laughing how his chest was stomped, and I’ve been called a white moron,” said Liming.

He is now calling for the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office to take another look at the charges or step aside and let the Ohio Attorney General’s Office step in. He has also asked the FBI to investigate to find out if there is a civil rights violation.