Ex-Cleveland Officer Timothy Loehmann Backs Out of New Police Job, Bellaire PD Confirms
Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, has said thanks, but no thanks to becoming a part-time officer with Ohio’s Bellaire Police Department.
“As of this afternoon, Timothy Loehmann has withdrawn his application in Bellaire,” Rice’s mother, Samaria Rice, announced at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “Hopefully, he will not be hired as a police officer by any other state.”
On Friday, the Bellaire Police Department announced it had hired former Cleveland Officer Timothy Loehmann as a part-time police officer. (Image courtesy of News 5 Cleveland)
Bellaire Police Chief Richard Flanagan confirmed that Loehmann had pulled his application. The news comes less than a week after Flanagan announced he was bringing Loehmann on as a part-time officer, saying he felt the embattled cop deserved “a second chance.”
“He was cleared of any and all wrongdoing,” Flanagan told The Times Leader of Loehmann’s role in the fatal 2014 shooting. “He was never charged. It’s over and done with.”
According to News 5 Cleveland, Samaria Rice and Black Lives Matter of Cleveland held a news conference Wednesday to discuss Loehmann’s hiring. Rice said she learned moments before the news conference began that Loehmann had withdrawn his application.
Tamir was playing with toy gun outside a Cleveland rec center in 2014 when the officer drove up and shot him. Video from the incident showed the officer open fire on the child less than three seconds after arriving on the scene.
A Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to indict Loehmann in the shooting. However, he was fired from the department in 2017 after it was discovered he lied about his work history and was once deemed “unfit” to be an officer.
Watch more in the clip below.
