CLEVELAND, Ohio – A tiny town in north central Pennsylvania has hired Timothy Loehmann, the former Cleveland police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice in 2014.
Loehmann was sworn in Tuesday in Tioga, a borough of 700 people near Williamsport. He will be making $18 an hour as the only officer on the force. His hiring was a surprise to many, including Mayor David Wilcox.
The move drew protests from dozens of residents who criticized the hiring Wednesday night at the town’s offices, according to published reports.
“I was under the impression that there was a thorough background check into him, that he didn’t have any issues,” Wilcox told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
“I found it strange that someone would move here all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, for $18 an hour. But I heard that he wanted to get away from it all and come here to hunt and fish.”
Garrett Carr, a freelance writer for the Williamsport Sun Gazette, was the first to report the story.
Loehmann has tried to obtain other jobs with other police departments. He attempted to gain a part-time position in Bellaire, in eastern Ohio in 2018. He later left soon after he was hired.
Wilcox, the mayor, said members of the borough’s council found Loehmann and agreed to hire him. He said he was not given a chance to review Loehmann’s resume.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Steve Hazlett, the council’s president, seeking comment. It also attempted to reach other members of the town’s council.
News of the move angered those close to the Rice case.
“Whoever hired him made a big mistake,” said Tamir’s mother, Samaria Rice. “He shouldn’t be a police officer anywhere in the United States.”
Subodh Chandra, the attorney for Tamir’s family and his estate, agreed.
“Tioga officials apparently don’t care whether a police officer was considered mentally unfit for one department, lied on his application to another, rushed upon and slew a child, and then lied about calling out warnings to Tamir — when his window was rolled up on a winter’s day,” Chandra said.
Loehmann shot Tamir at Cudell Recreation Center on Nov. 22, 2014, while the boy was playing was an airsoft pellet gun. He died the next day. Loehmann was a rookie officer. He was a passenger in a car driven by a veteran training officer, Frank Garmback.
The two officers responded to a report of someone pointing a gun at people outside the recreation center. The caller told a 911 dispatcher that the gun looked fake, but that information was never relayed to the officers. Garmback was suspended 10 days, but an arbitrator reduced the suspension to five days.
Cleveland settled a federal civil-rights lawsuit with the boy’s family for $6 million. A Cuyahoga County grand jury in 2015 declined to indict the officers. Federal prosecutors declined to bring the case to a grand jury.
Cleveland fired Loehmann in 2017, not for shooting Tamir, but for lying on his application to the Cleveland police department. He failed to disclose that the Independence Police Department dismissed him after determining he was unfit to serve on its department, city officials said.
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