The police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice has been hired as part-time police officer in Bellaire, a village in southeastern Ohio.
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Timothy Loehmann was hired as one of two new part-time officers with the Bellaire Police Department, the Wheeling News-Register reports. Ironically, the second officer, Eric Smith, was suspended from his job as the police chief of Bethesda, Ohio, and is currently under investigation by the Ohio Attorney General’s office for allegedly misusing a statewide computer system.
Loehmann was never indicted in connection to the shooting and was cleared by a Cuyahoga County grand jury and Cleveland’s Critical Incident Review Commission. Loehmann was fired from his Cleveland Police Department job because of a technicality. He omitted information from his employment application about a previous job.
Per the Wheeling New-Register, Loehmann’s performance as an officer was pretty horrible:
According to published reports, Independence Deputy Chief Jim Polak wrote in Loehmann’s personnel file that he was “weepy” and “distracted” during firearms training. He allegedly told Polak that he was having trouble with his girlfriend at the time. But the deputy went further in his statements about Loehmann’s competence.
“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” Polak wrote in 2012.
Polak recommended that Loehmann should leave the department.
“I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies,” Polak wrote.
He also said Loehmann lacked “maturity” to continue working for the Independence department, published reports indicate.
In 2009, Loehmann also failed an exam administered by the Maple Heights, Ohio, police department. Published reports indicate he failed to disclose that in his application to Cleveland, too.
Bellaire Police Chief Richard “Dick” Flanagan said he has no reservations about Loehmann.
“He was cleared of any and all wrongdoing,” Flanagan said of Loehmann. “He was never charged. It’s over and done with.”
Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun in a park near his home when Loehmann ruthlessly shot and killed him in November of 2014.
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