Ex-Cleveland cop who killed Tamir Rice finds new job

Who would hire him after he shot and killed an unarmed child?

Oct 7, 2018

Timothy Loehmann, the former Cleveland Police officer who killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year old child who as playing with a toy gun on a playground in Cleveland, Ohio, has found a new job. According to the Wheeling News-Register, Loehmann has been hired to work part time at the police department in Bellaire, Ohio—a small, rural town across the Ohio River from Wheeling, West Virginia.

Loehmann infamously killed Tamir in 2014 after someone wrongfully reported he was threatening people with a gun. Video showed Loehmann pulling up to the scene and immediately killing Rice.

Loehmann was not indicted and was cleared by a both a grand jury and Cleveland’s Critical Incident Review Commission. But to Bellaire Police Chief Dick Flanagan, none of that matters.

“He was cleared of any and all wrongdoing,” Flanagan said of Loehmann. “He was never charged. It’s over and done with.”

Flanagan said he has no reservations about bringing in an offer who killed a 12-year-old. He went further in saying that people shouldn’t “crucify” Loehmann for killing a middle school boy without warning.

Loehmann was fired from the Cleveland Police Department last year, but not for killing Rice. Loehmann was let go for having lied on his job application, failing to disclose issues with his competence from a previous job in Independence, Ohio.

“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” Independence Deputy Chief Jim Polak wrote in 2012, before recommending Loehmann leave the department. “I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies.”

None of that – nor the killing of a pre-teen – matters to Flanagan, however. They’re just looking for a few able bodies.

“I have full confidence and faith in every police officer here,” Flanagan said. “We have eight full-time officers and five part-time officers. And if anyone is looking for a part-time job, call me.”