One Officer Involved in Tamir Rice Case Fired, Another Suspended

On Tuesday, some 30 months after 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann, the city’s police department fired Loehmann. However, that disciplinary action wasn’t the direct result of Loehmann’s decision to shoot the African American boy, who was holding a toy gun near a Cleveland recreation center, on Nov. 22, 2014.

Instead, Loehmann lost his job because he hadn’t disclosed all the facts about his employment record when he put in an application with the department. As CNN reported, Officer Frank Garmback, who accompanied Loehmann on the call that led to Rice’s death, was also given a lesser punishment of a 10-day suspension for breaking tactical rules as he drove to the scene.

An Ohio grand jury declined to criminally charge the officers in 2015.

… Rice’s mother called the actions against Loehmann and Garmback “deeply disappointing.”

“I am relieved Loehmann has been fired because he should never have been a police officer in the first place—but he should have been fired for shooting my son in less than one second, not just for lying on his application,” a statement from Samaria Rice read.

“And Garmback should be fired, too, for his role in pulling up too close to Tamir,” Samaria Rice said. “As we continue to grieve for Tamir, I hope this is a call for all of us to build stronger communities together.”

Among the details Loehmann had omitted from his 2013 application to join Cleveland’s police force was his prior resignation, under threat of firing, from a nearby department in Independence, Ohio.

—Posted by Kasia Anderson

Related Entries

• May 25, 2017 Florida Officer’s First Question to Immigrant in Accident: ‘You Illegal?’
• May 14, 2017 Trump Is the Symptom, Not the Disease