The former Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice has been hired by a police department in a small Ohio village, the AP reports. Bellaire's police chief, Richard Flanagan, confirmed Friday that he hired Timothy Loehmann as a part-time officer. "He was cleared of any and all wrongdoing," Flanagan tells the Times Leader. "He was never charged. It's over and done with." According to published reports, Loehmann, who is white, shot Tamir, who was black, two seconds after responding to a 2014 call about the boy carrying what turned out to be a pellet gun.
A grand jury declined to indict Loehmann, who was fired last year after it was discovered he had been deemed "unfit for duty" on an earlier job. That happened in Independence, Ohio, where he was told in 2012 to quit or be fired after a deputy chief deemed him unable to follow directions, communicate, or execute proper handgun control. Loehmann chose to resign from the police force, per an old Guardian article. Loehmann also failed an exam by the Maple Heights, Ohio, police department in 2009. "Ms. Rice believes that Timothy Loehmann does not belong on any police force, anywhere, period," the Rice family attorney tells Cleveland 19. Bellaire is a village of about 4,000 along the Ohio River, more than 150 miles south of Cleveland.
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