Ray Tensing, Sam DuBose each have own march

Two more public events related to the Ray Tensing case will be held Saturday and Monday.

At 5 p.m. Saturday, the local Black Lives Matter group and its partners in the Countdown to Conviction Coalition will hold an event on Fountain Square, according to its Facebook page. It's billed as a "Rally for Justice for Sam DuBose."

Then at 6 p.m. Monday, a prayer walk and vigil will be sponsored by a Facebook community called Support Ray Tensing. It will begin at Sawyer Point and go over the Purple People Bridge and back.

The events come on the heels of the announcement Tuesday by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters that he will not seek a third trial for Tensing. The white, former University of Cincinnati police officer shot and killed black unarmed motorist Sam DuBose in a July 2015 traffic stop. Both trials ended in hung juries, and Deters would drop murder and voluntary manslaughter charges against Tensing.

More:Deters: 'I want everyone ... to see beyond black and white'

Lacy Robinson, a 25-year-old white woman from Hamilton, on Sunday started the Facebook page Support Ray Tensing. Soon afterward she organized the Monday event.

"I watched from Day 1 to the end of the second trial, and there was no one standing up for Ray Tensing," said Robinson, who also created two online petitions in support of the former officer. The first demanded no third trial, and the other is now calling for no federal civil rights charges against Tensing.

"People believe he is innocent," Robinson said of Tensing. "He made his decision to put his life on the line, and it's time to stand up for him. That's kind of our motto."

The Facebook page logo is being made into T-shirts. It uses the hashtags #TENSINGPROUD and #BACKTHEBLUE and an image of the law enforcement flag.

The Facebook page also is soliciting suggestions for possible fundraising events to help Tensing.

Robinson said she reached out to DuBose's sister, Terina DuBose Allen, via Facebook. The two women had what they both described as a "cordial" electronic conversation.

Dubose Allen is angry that the Monday event is happening, though she respects the right for people to express their opinion.

"It is appalling," she said Thursday. "It further devalues Sam's life. It's a further example of the hatred in society. They are treating Tensing like a victim. I told Lacy that. It's like they are trying to antagonize.

"I think she and everyone who marches are trying to send a message that validates what Tensing did — fire a bullet into a man's head. You are showing support for a man who is walking free while another man is dead."

Robinson said the pro-Tensing event will include prayers and a moment of silence. She said the march will go into Northern Kentucky because many Tensing supporters live there. Once the marchers return to Ohio, balloons will be released in DuBose's memory.

"We can be a community regardless of our views," Robinson said. Cincinnati Police will be present to protect Tensing supporters, she said. 

"We have received death threats," Robinson said.

DuBose Allen said no in-between exists in this case.

"You cannot mutually do this," she said. "I'm all for police officers, and you choose to support one who is a murderer? A lot of white people wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts were out in the rain and scorching heat marching for Sam. Where were these people? Now they are marching for Tensing?"

On Wednesday, the DuBose family sent what DuBose Allen said is a "voluminous amount of information" to federal prosecutors who are looking into a possible civil rights case against Tensing. They told the family that they had been monitoring the case through the first two trials.

"I think we have a case," she said of a federal conviction, "This is not over."