More than two years after the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, the police officer who fatally shot him has been fired.
In a news conference Tuesday, Cleveland officials confirmed that Timothy Loehmann, who fired the gun, would be terminated. Additionally, his partner Frank Garmback, who was driving the patrol car, will be suspended for 10 days. He will be required to take an additional tactical training course.
In December 2015, a grand jury decided not to indict Loehmann or Garmback, declining to bring any charges against them. The next month, it was decided they would face administrative charges from the department.
Even though Loehmann wasn’t penalized for the Rice shooting, according to Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams, he was fired for a completely different reason: inaccurate details on his job application. Associated Press reports that during his application process, Loehmann did not share that a suburban department allowed him to resign at the end of a six-month probationary period instead of being fired.
Today’s decision comes after what Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson called an “exhaustive process” of investigation.
On November 22, 2014, Loehmann and Garmback responded to a dispatch call “of a male black sitting on a swing and pointing a gun at people” in a city park. Though the caller specified that the gun was “probably fake” and that Rice was “probably a juvenile,” that information was not relayed to the officers on the initial dispatch. Loehmann shot Tamir within two seconds of arriving on the scene.
Tamir’s mom Samaria Rice joins REVOLT TV for its ‘Operation Get Home Alive’ panel airing June 6 at 10 p.m. ET. ‘Operation Get Home Alive’ continues the conversation of social justice in America and police relations in communities of color with testimonies from several artists who offer insight and hope in how to move forward.