The mother of Tamir Rice has slammed a rural Ohio police department’s recent hiring of Timothy Loehmann, the former Cleveland cop who fatally shot her son.
According to a report Friday in a Wheeling, West Virginia newspaper, The Intelligencer, the nearby Bellaire, Ohio police department hired Loehmann on a part-time basis.
In a statement to The Daily Beast, Samaria Rice said of Loehmann that “given his history—including breaking down and crying during training and rushing upon and slaying a 12-year-old child—Loehmann doesn't belong on any police force, anywhere, period.”
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“And he shouldn't be foisted upon the citizenry anywhere,” Rice said in the statement, which was provided by her lawyer, Subodh Chandra.
Loehmann fatally shot Rice in November 2014 outside a Cleveland recreation center.
While a Cuyahoga County grand jury decided not to bring criminal charges against Loehmann, he was fired by Cleveland officials in 2017—for lying on his job application, Cleveland.com reports.
Loehmann failed to disclose that the Independence Police Department previously found him unfit to be a member of the department, per Cleveland.com.
Loehmann’s Independence Police Department personnel file revealed that he had an emotional breakdown on the firing range.
Bellaire’s police leadership, however, favors giving Loehmann a second chance.
“He was cleared of any and all wrongdoing,” Bellaire Police Chief Richard “Dick” Flanagan told The Intelligencer. “He was never charged. It’s over and done with.”
Flanagan also told the newspaper he thinks it’s unfair for people to “crucify” Loehmann.
