Officer who killed Tamir Rice resigns from Pa. borough police less than two days after he was sworn in

Less than two days after he was sworn in to the post, the former Cleveland police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice withdrew his application to be the lone police officer in a tiny northern Pennsylvania town, according to a borough official.

On Tuesday, Tioga Borough swore in Timothy Loehmann, who killed 12-year-old Tamir in 2014, as the borough’s only police officer, according to a Facebook post from Tioga Borough Council President Steve Hazlett. After outrage from borough residents and others, Loehmann withdrew his application Thursday morning, Hazlett said in another post.

Those posts were later removed, but Hazlett confirmed Loehmann’s hiring and decision to step down to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, telling the news outlet that the council’s police committee knew of Loehmann’s past when they hired him, and thanking local protesters who opposed the decision, saying their “words were heard.”

Tioga Borough did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Hazlett did not immediately respond to a Facebook message seeking comment.

In a 2015 Facebook post, Hazlett had mocked Tamir’s death.

Samaria Rice, Tamir’s mother, called Loehmann’s hiring a “big mistake,” the Washington Post reported.

“He shouldn’t be a police officer anywhere in the United States,” she said.

Subodh Chandra, the attorney for Tamir’s family, criticized the judgment of Tioga officials.

“While it’s great that Loehmann will not be inflicting himself with a badge and a gun upon Tioga, borough officials need to be held accountable for their appallingly poor judgment and ineptitude,” Chandra said in a statement. “We’re investigating. This game of whack-a-mole with Loehmann shamelessly resurfacing as a cop elsewhere must end.”

Loehmann could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Loehmann killed Tamir in November 2014, after Cleveland police responded to a call that someone was waving a gun near a recreation center. The man who made the call told a dispatcher that the gun could be fake and the person waving it could be a child.

Officers arrived where Tamir had been sitting. Loehmann, a rookie, shot and killed the boy within seconds of the patrol car coming to a stop. Tamir had been holding a toy pellet gun.

The fatal shooting set off a wave of outrage among people who saw it as the murder of a child, once again putting a spotlight on police brutality against Black people. Calls for Loehmann’s job, and for him to face criminal charges were unsuccessful. An Ohio grand jury cleared Loehmann and another officer of wrongdoing in 2015. The Justice Department quietly shut down its civil rights investigation into the killing, the New York Times reported, and has declined to reopen the case.

Loehmann was eventually fired from the Cleveland Police Department in 2017, for providing false information on his job application. Loehmann had neglected to disclose that he had been allowed to quit a job as a police officer in Independence, Ohio, after showing a “dangerous lack of composure” during firearms training.

For years, Loehmann’s name was mostly absent from the news. But in October 2018, the village of Bellaire, Ohio, hired Loehmann as one of two new police officers. As with Tioga, Bellaire residents were furious. The police chief at the time defended the decision, saying that Loehmann had been cleared of wrongdoing and deserved a second chance.

But days later, amid the backlash, Loehmann withdrew his application.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.