Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland, Ohio police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, has been hired by Tioga Borough’s police department.
On Tuesday night, photos surfaced online of Loehmann’s swearing-in as a borough police officer. Loehmann killed Rice on Nov. 22. The tragedy occurred just three months after unarmed Black teen, Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri.
The news of Tioga’s new hire was confirmed by Mayor David Wilcox, who said he was unaware of Loehmann’s background during the swearing-in ceremony.
“I was under the understanding, through our police committee and our Borough president, that they did an extensive background check on him,” he said, per WENY. “Everything checked out, everyone they spoke to, clean record…and that was my understanding.”
Officers responded to a police dispatch call reporting that a male was pointing a pistol at random people in the park. During the call, the person stated that they believed the gun was “probably fake,” adding that the person in question is probably a juvenile.”
Officers were not informed of these facts. When they arrived at the scene, Rice, who was playing in a gazebo, what shot by Loehmann within three seconds of arriving at the scene.
It was a toy gun.
In December 2020, The Justice Department announced that they found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback.
Attorney for Tamir Rice’s family, Jonathan Abady, reacted to the decision.
“This case involves the totally unjustified shooting of a 12-year-old child,” he told CNN. “This is part of a problem that we’ve been living with as a society for as long as anyone can remember, that is the unjustified excessive use of force by police officers against people of color. And the idea that people would not be held accountable for this is really more than upsetting.”
