Less than one week after former Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann, killer of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, was offered a “second chance” and a new badge and gun in the southeast Ohio village of Bellaire, the disgraced cop has rescinded his own application.
In addition to a coordinated social media protest, Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, had planned to protest inside the town of about 4,100 in order to get the police chief, Dick Flanagan, to reconsider.
Rice ... fears Loehmann’s proven incompetence as an officer puts the safety of Bellaire residents at risk.
“I plan to go down to Bellaire to have a conversation with that police department and say, ‘You guys are making a big mistake,’” Rice told Mic by phone Monday morning.
Flanagan defended his choice to hire Loehmann alongside another troubled Ohio police officer, Eric Smith, who is currently under investigation by the state attorney general.
Bellaire Police Chief Richard “Dick” Flanagan confirmed Friday that he hired Loehmann and Smith. He said he believes both men deserve second chances.
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Flanagan said Friday he had no reservations about hiring Loehmann to work in his department.
“He was cleared of any and all wrongdoing,” Flanagan said of Loehmann. “He was never charged. It’s over and done with.”
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Flanagan said he never had reservations about hiring Loehmann because he was cleared of any wrongdoing regarding Rice’s death. He said he does not believe it is fair for people to “crucify” Loehmann about what happened.
Loehmann wasn’t actually fired for killing a middle-schooler, however; he was sacked in 2017 for lying on his application about multiple attempts to be a police officer in the past, including a forced resignation in nearby Independence, which deemed him “emotionally immature” and someone whose issues couldn’t be fixed with training. He also was found to be unfit to be a Cuyahoga County sheriff, and failed to pass the written exam when applying to the Maple Heights force.
Samaria Rice summed up Loehmann’s lack of qualifications best.
“He is emotionally unstable and mentally unstable,” Rice said of Loehmann. “Anytime your mother has to come and get you off a gun range, you are a problem. I think that town and that police department are going to be in danger.”
Thankfully, protest works, and Loehmann will not be toting a gun around the tiny village near the West Virginia border. Rice hopes he never works in law enforcement again, while Loehmann’s union president predictably blames the fiasco on anybody but the child-killer who lied on his application—or the small-town police chief dumb enough to hire him.
"Hopefully he will never be employed by any [police department] in America," Rice said during the news conference. "He is unfit to be a police officer, period."
Jeff Follmer, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association union that represents rank-and-file officers, also confirmed that Loehmann decided not to take the job. Follmer cited "political pressure" as the reason Loehmann decided to rescind his application.
Bellaire Chief Flanagan has yet to comment.
Loehmann is still appealing his January 2017 termination from the Cleveland force, but Samaria Rice is all over that battle, too. Here’s hoping she wins. Every city in America deserves a better cop than Timothy Loehmann.
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