Cop leaves new job in rural Pennsylvania town without working a shift

The former Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 withdrew from the police force of a tiny Pennsylvania town on Thursday amid community backlash and media scrutiny over his hiring.

Timothy Loehmann was sworn in this week as the lone police officer in Tioga — a community of about 600 people in rural north-central Pennsylvania, 300 miles from Cleveland — but left the position without having worked a single shift, according to borough council President Steve Hazlett.

“The community spoke. They got their feelings out, and we listened to them and we’re going to react to it and that will be that,” he told Associated Press in a phone interview. “We thank the community for stepping forward and letting their voices be heard.”

Rice, who was Black, was playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2014, when he was shot and killed by Loehmann seconds after Loehmann and his partner arrived. The officers told investigators Loehmann had shouted three times at Tamir to raise his hands.

The shooting sparked community protests about police treatment of Black people, especially after a grand jury decided not to indict the white officer or his partner.

Cleveland settled a lawsuit over Tamir’s death for $6 million, and the city ultimately fired Loehmann for having lied on his application to become a police officer.

Loehmann has since made multiple attempts to find work in law enforcement. He landed a part-time position with a police department in the southeast Ohio village of Bellaire in October 2018, but withdrew his application days later after Tamir’s mother, Samaria, and others criticized the hiring.