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CLEVELAND (AP) — A union representing the white Cleveland police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center, will ask an Ohio appeals court to overturn the officer's firing.
Timothy Loehmann and his training officer were cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the death of Tamir in November 2014. But Loehmann was fired in May 2017 from the Cleveland Police Department after it was discovered he did not disclose on his job application that he had previously been dismissed from a suburban police department.
Last month, a Cuyahoga County judge upheld an arbitrator's decision that Loehmann should have been fired for failing to disclose that information.
The Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association has argued that Cleveland violated Loehmann's due-process rights because the city waited so long to begin the disciplinary process against him.
“We think our appeal has merit and look forward to having a review by the Court of Appeals,” union attorney Henry Hilow told cleveland.com.
Loehmann shot Tamir within seconds of a cruiser driven by Patrolman Frank Garmback skidding to a stop near the boy.
The shooting was recorded in a grainy surveillance video that drew international attention and led to Tamir becoming a symbol for the Black Lives Matter protest movement over police treatment of blacks and minorities.
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