Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, was fired Tuesday not for the shooting but because investigations of the incident found he’d broken rules when he applied to the force.
In addition the officer who was with Loehmann, Frank Garmback, will be suspended for 10 days because he violated tactical rules relating to how he drove to the scene that day, the city’s public safety director and the city’s police chief said.
An Ohio grand jury declined to criminally charge the officers in 2015.
None of the rules violations announced by Public Safety Director Michael McGrath and Police Chief Calvin Williams directly related to the firing of Loehmann’s gun outside a recreation center on November 22, 2014.
Loehmann’s firing took effect Tuesday morning, and Garmback’s suspension begins Wednesday. The punishment stems from an internal investigation that resumed in earnest after the grand jury declined to charge the officers.
“After over two years of investigation by our agency, the county prosecutor’s office (and) the sheriff’s department, I think we’ve come to what we consider a fair conclusion to this process,” Williams said.
Loehmann’s violation relates to what he had entered on his application’s personal history statement, Williams said without elaborating.
The city of Cleveland settled a wrongful death lawsuit last year with the Rice family for $6 million.