Timothy Loehmann, the white police officer who faced no charges in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old unarmed Tamir Rice, is now working at a police department in West Virginia.
As reported by News 5 Cleveland, Loehmann was recently hired by the White Sulfur Police Force in West Virginia, a state over from the department he worked at in Cleveland, Ohio when he killed Rice in November 2014. Loehmann did not face any charges in connection with the incident, which sparked widespread outrage and protests across the country. He was, however, fired from the Cleveland Police Department in 2017 for "lying on his application."
"White Sulphur Springs's police chief and its public officials evidently don’t care that the City of Independence, Ohio considered Timothy Loehmann mentally unfit for duty, [and] Cleveland fired him because he lied on his application," said attorney Subodh Chandra, who represented Rice's family. "He rushed upon and slew a child, and in the ensuing investigation he lied about calling out warnings to Tamir when his fellow officer said the windows were up that fateful winter's day."
Chandra said that every time Loehmann resurfaces in the public eye he "torments the family of Tamir Rice."
"Why can't he just go away and live the rest of his life—life he deprived Tamir of—in humility? Why does he insist on being a cop? It seems pathological at this point," reads the statement. "Let’s hope White Sulphur Springs residents have the good sense to condemn the poor judgment of their morally bankrupt police chief."
Tamir Rice would have turned 22 this year.
Loehmann was one of two officers, alongside Frank Garmback, who responded to reports of a male brandishing a firearm on November 22. The caller alleged that they spotted a male pointing a firearm at people near Cudell Recreation Center, but admitted it was "probably fake." They also said they believed the male was a "juvenile," but neither that or the "probably fake" comments made it to the two responding officers. Loehmann fired two shots at Rice, one of which hit him in the torso. He was carrying an airsoft gun. He died of his injuries the following day.
