The American public “deserves more answers” about the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.
The Ohio Republican also said he was open to the idea of Congress holding hearings on the deaths in New York and Ferguson, Mo.
{mosads}“Both of these are serious tragedies that we’ve seen in our society. I think the American people want to understand more about what the facts were,” Boehner told reporters at a news conference. “There are a lot of unanswered questions that Americans have and, frankly, I have.”
The Speaker’s remarks came a day after a New York grand jury declined to charge a white police officer who had deployed a fatal chokehold on 43-year-old Eric Garner, sparking protests in cities across the country.
That decision came soon after a Missouri grand jury declined to charge a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown. The Justice Department has opened investigations into both incidents.
Boehner said both Justice Department investigations and congressional hearings into the incidents — suggested earlier Thursday by House GOP conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) — may be in order.
“I’m not going to rule that in or out,” the Speaker said. “But I do think that the American people deserve more answers about what really happened here, and was our system of justice handled properly.”
The incidents hit close to home for Boehner, a longtime Ohio congressman. Protests erupted in Cleveland last week after a white police officer there fatally shot a black 12-year-old boy after he was seen by motorists waving what turned out to be a pellet gun at a park.
And later Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder released a report lambasting Cleveland police officers for using excessive force too often and being poorly trained in their tactics and firearm use, The Associated Press reported.