Timothy Loehmann and Tamir Rice/Photo courtesy of Diversity Inc.
Timothy Loehmann, the ex-officer who killed Tamir Rice, will not get his job back. The Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal to be reinstated to the Cleveland Police Department after he was fired for inaccuracies on his application, reported the Associated Press.
Loehmann notoriously shot Tamir, an adolescent, in 2014 within three seconds of exiting his patrol car. The child had a toy gun.
Although a jury failed to indict Loehmann, he left the Cleveland Police Department and obtained part-time employment at the Bellair Police Department about three hours outside of Cleveland. However, Loehmann ended up withdrawing his application.
The appeal was filed in April by the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association on behalf of Timothy Loehmann. An arbitrator and county judge had already upheld his firing that took place in 2017.
The wayward former cop, who had also worked for the City of Independence, had a personnel record that suggested that he never should have been a law enforcement officer in the first place. Deputy Chief Jim Polak said in an assessment that the man was “distracted” and “weepy” during firearms qualification training.
“I do not believe Ptl. Loehmann shows the maturity needed to work in our employment,” Polak wrote. Loehmann went on to be rejected from other forces due to poor performance on entrance exams. Cleveland eventually hired him.
The Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling has likely brought the prospect that the walking nightmare, Loehmann, will ever be able to have a gun and badge again.
“I am glad that Loehmann will never have a badge and gun in Cleveland again,” Tamir’s mother, Samaria Rice, said
in a statement issued Tuesday.Cleveland agreed to pay Tamir’s family a $6 million dollar settlement in 2016. Samaria Rice founded the The Tamir Rice Foundation shortly thereafter.
In November 2020, the sixth anniversary of Tamir’s death was commemorated with the announcement of the Afro-Centric Cultural Center, one of the foundation’s initiatives.
Tamir would have been 19-years-old in June.