Officer who killed Tamir Rice leaves new job in West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The former Cleveland cop who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice resigned from a West Virginia police force in 2014, the third time in six years he had left a small department, after leaving shortly after his appointment due to negative reactions.
City of White Sulphur Springs officials said Timothy Loehmann resigned as a probationary officer Monday afternoon.
In a statement issued to WVVA-TV Mayor Kathy Glover said Loehmann was hired on the recommendation of White Sulphur Springs Police Chief Teubert.
“As this is a labor matter, I will not comment further,” Glover said.
It was not immediately clear how long Loehmann had been on the force. A call to Teubert’s office went unanswered. The Associated Press left phone messages Tuesday for Glover and for Subodh Chandra, a Cleveland attorney for Rice’s family. A phone number for Loehmann could not be found, and an attorney who previously represented him was not immediately available for comment.
After being hired in West Virginia, Chandra told Cleveland station WEWS-TV last week that Loehmann “should never be trusted with a badge and a gun.”
White Sulphur Springs is home to the posh Greenbrier resort, owned by Republican Governor Jim Justice, in southeastern West Virginia, along the Virginia border.
Rice, who was black, was playing with an air rifle outside a Cleveland recreation center on Nov. 22, 2014, when he was shot and killed by Loehmann seconds after Loehmann and his partner arrived. The officers, who are white, told investigators that Loehmann yelled at Tamir three times to put his hands up.
The shooting sparked community protests over police treatment of black people, especially after a grand jury decided not to indict Loehmann and his partner.
Cleveland settled a lawsuit over Tamir’s death for $6 million. The city ultimately fired Loehmann for lying on his application to become a police officer.
Loehmann was offered a part-time job with a police department in the southeastern Ohio town of Bellaire in October 2018, but withdrew his application days later after Tamir’s mother, Samaria, and others criticized the hire.
In July 2022, he was sworn in as the sole police officer in Tioga, a community of about 600 residents in rural northcentral Pennsylvania about 300 miles from Cleveland. He left without a single shift, however, amid negative reactions and media coverage about his appointment.