Cleveland officer who killed Tamir Rice is fired

CLEVELAND — The police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice was fired Tuesday for failing to disclose that he had been forced out of another department before Cleveland hired him, while his partner was suspended for driving too close to the 12-year-old seconds before the boy was killed.

Cleveland police Chief Calvin Williams announced the discipline against Officers Timothy Loehmann, who shot the boy, and Frank Garmback, who was driving the cruiser.

Tamir, who was black, was shot outside a recreation center in November 2014 as he held a pellet gun that the white officers mistook for a real firearm. The killing became part of a national outcry about police violence against black boys and men, and set off protests throughout the U.S. The officers weren’t charged criminally, but Tamir’s mother settled a federal civil rights lawsuit with the city for $6 million.

Mr. Loehmann was fired because the department concluded he wasn’t truthful on his job application, failing to reveal that a suburban department had allowed him to resign. An evaluation in the suburban Independence, Ohio, department’s file had said Mr. Loehmann had a “dismal” handgun performance, broke down in tears at the gun range and was emotionally immature.

Officer Garmback was suspended for 10 days for violating a tactical rule for driving too close to Tamir. Video of the shooting shows the patrol car skidding to a stop just feet from the boy.