A Cleveland police officer has been dismissed from the force for his role in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, a case that became a national flashpoint in the debate over police use of force.
A Decade-Long Wait for Disciplinary Action
The decision to fire the officer, whose name was Timothy Loehmann, was announced following a long-awaited internal disciplinary hearing. The hearing concluded that Loehmann had violated multiple departmental policies during the incident on 22 November 2014.
On that day, Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, responded to a 911 call about a person with a gun outside the Cudell Recreation Center. The caller explicitly stated the individual was "probably a juvenile" and the gun was "probably fake." This critical information was not relayed to the responding officers.
Upon arrival, the patrol car driven by Garmback stopped close to where Tamir was standing. Within two seconds of the car arriving, Loehmann, who was in the passenger seat, opened fire, shooting the 12-year-old. Tamir was holding a replica airsoft pistol. He died from his injuries the following day.
Investigations and Legal Proceedings
In the years following the shooting, a Cuyahoga County grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against Loehmann in 2015. A subsequent US Department of Justice review under the Obama administration also closed without federal charges in 2020.
However, the Cleveland Division of Police pressed forward with its own internal administrative investigation. The department charged Loehmann with multiple violations, including untruthfulness, failure to follow procedures, and incompetent performance of duties. Officer Frank Garmback faced a separate disciplinary hearing and received a 10-day suspension for his tactical decisions during the incident.
The city of Cleveland previously reached a $6 million civil settlement with Tamir Rice's family in 2016 to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit.
Reactions and the Path Forward
The decision to dismiss Loehmann has been met with mixed reactions. Advocates for police accountability and the Rice family have described the move as a small measure of justice, albeit one that arrived nearly a decade too late. They argue it highlights systemic failures in police training and emergency dispatch protocols.
Subodh Chandra, the attorney for the Rice family, stated the firing was "the absolute least" the department could do. He emphasised that the true failure lay with the system that allowed such an incident to occur and took so long to reach an administrative conclusion.
For the Cleveland police, the dismissal represents a significant step in a long process of reform agreed upon with the US Department of Justice following a 2014 investigation that found a pattern of excessive force within the department.
The case of Tamir Rice remains a poignant and painful chapter in Cleveland's history and continues to fuel national conversations about police conduct, racial justice, and the urgent need for comprehensive procedural reforms in law enforcement agencies across the United States.
