According to the Associated Press, Timothy Loehmann, the cop who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, has gotten a new police job.
Loehmann lost his job as a Cleveland police officer in 2017, but not because he was responsible for Rice’s tragic death. Though he was put on probation, he was later fired for "lying on his application" for the Cleveland PD. A jury never indicted Loehmann, but Cleveland settled a suit with Rice’s family.
"He should have never been a police officer anyway," Tamir’s mother Samaria Rice told reporters last year.
Now he’s being given another opportunity to work as a police officer. Bellaire’s police chief Richard Flanagan confirmed hiring Loehmann as a part-time officer on Friday. According to the AP, Flanagan said the former Cleveland officer “deserves a second chance,” something Rice will never have. Bellaire is a small community of only 4,000 people, 150 miles south of Cleveland.
It’s been almost four years since Rice was shot and killed on Nov. 22, 2014. Loehmann and his partner Frank Garmback responded to a call of "a black male sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people." Rice was playing with a fake pellet gun outside of a recreation center. He would have been 16 this year.
Samaria Rice is currently working on opening a cultural center in Cleveland in honor of her late son that will serve as a refuge for other black children in Cleveland. The Tamir Rice Afrocentric Cultural Center will provide children a place to engage in activities involving visual art, drama, music, and other lessons relating to civics.
