Officer Who Killed Tamir Rice Resigns After Two Days At New Police Job
Timothy Loehmann, the former Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Nov. of 2014 as he played in a park, has resigned from being a police officer in Tioga, Pennsylvania after two days.
Backlash followed after it was announced that Loehmann was sworn in as the only officer in Tioga, Pennsylvania, on July 5. According to the Associated Press, by July 7, Loehmann had resigned before working a single shift. Borough council President Steve Hazlett said in a statement, “The community spoke. They got their feelings out, and we listened to them and we’re going to react to it and that will be that. We thank the community for stepping forward and letting their voices be heard.”
Loehmann was cleared of wrongdoing in Rice’s death but was fired from the Cleveland Police Department in May 2017 for failing to disclose he’d been previously forced out by another police department. A grand jury would also decline to charge Loehmann.
In July of 2021, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the Cleveland police union’s appeal of a lower court ruling that Loehmann’s firing from the city's police department remain in place.
Tamir’s mother, Samaria Rice, said through her attorney Subodh Chandra at the time, “I am glad that Loehmann will never have a badge and gun in Cleveland again.”
The City of Cleveland settled with Rice’s family for $6 million. In April of 2021, Rice’s family asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to reopen the federal investigation into his death, after the Trump Administration, under Attorney General Wiliam Barr, closed the federal probe. However, in Feb. 2022, the Department of Justice declined to reopen the case.
