Police union determined to get Tamir Rice’s killer his cop job back
The ex-Cleveland cop officer who killed 12-year-old unarmed Black child Tamir Rice, will not get his job back, because he lied on paperwork, and not because he actually killed an innocent kid though, Cleveland.com reports.
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However Cleveland police union president Jeff Follmer is still fighting to get ex-cop Timothy Loehmann his job back on the force, calling an arbitrator’s ruling Wednesday, a called a “witch hunt” during a news conference.
“Hopefully we can find a judge who can read things, look through all the information and get to the facts of this case,” Follmer said.
Rice was killed in Nov. 2014 when Loehmann and Officer Frank Garmback received a call about a suspect with a gun in a park. The officers approached Rice in their vehicle and shot him almost instantly, only to discover he had a toy gun. A grand jury later decided not to indict the officers.
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.
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“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.”
To add insult to injury, Loehmann was recently hired by the Bellaire, Ohio police department four years after the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Rice. But the hiring was met with intense scrutiny and criticism. The ex-Cleveland cop ultimately quit his new job and backed out of an opportunity to serve as a police officer in Bellaire after widespread criticism, WTRF reports.
