Timothy Loehmann Withdraws from Smalltown Pennsylvania Police Job Day After News of Hiring
The news was shared by Tioga council president Steve Hazlett, who also first shared news of Loehmann’s hiring this week. Tioga’s government website also shared the news with a brief statement reading only: “Effective this morning Timothy Loehmann has officially with drawn his application for Tioga Borough Police Officer.”
Outcry over Tamir Rice’s killer landing another cop gig was immediate both in Cleveland and in the small Pennsylvania borough where a “thorough background check” was done by council before hiring Loehmann.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio – A tiny town in north central Pennsylvania has hired Timothy Loehmann, the former Cleveland police officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice in 2014.
Loehmann was sworn in Tuesday in Tioga, a borough of 700 people near Williamsport. He will be making $18 an hour as the only officer on the force. His hiring was a surprise to many, including Mayor David Wilcox. ﹡
“I was under the impression that there was a thorough background check into him, that he didn’t have any issues,” Wilcox told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
“I found it strange that someone would move here all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, for $18 an hour,” Wilcox said. “But I heard that he wanted to get away from it all and come here to hunt and fish.”
Loehmann was hired to be a part-time police officer Bellaire, Ohio, in 2018 but withdrew his application after news broke of the hire, according to WEWS-TV.
“Tioga officials apparently don’t care whether a police officer was considered mentally unfit for one department, lied on his application to another, rushed upon and slew a child, and then lied about calling out warnings to Tamir — when his window was rolled up on a winter’s day,” Rice family and estate attorney Subodh Chandra said.
Mayor Wilcox said Loehmann has yet to work a shift—and he won’t—until this is all cleared up. The mayor said he’s urging council to meet and discuss Loehmann’s past and what happens next.
Council unanimously approved Loehmann’s hiring at $18 per hour. He was hired on a 90-day probationary period, and according to the mayor, the intention was to promote him to chief after a successful period.
In Cleveland Loehmann was cleared of wrongdoing by a grand jury investigation the next year, though proceedings were contentious, with Jeffrey Noble, a retired police officer and use-of-force expert telling GQ Magazine that “I’ve definitely never seen two prosecutors play defense attorney so well.”
Afterwards, Loehmann was fired from the Cleveland Police Department — not for the incident but for lying on his police application to Cleveland, according to then-Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. The discrepancy, according to Cleveland.com and other outlets was that Loehmann had lied about why he left his previous job with the police department in Independence, Ohio. The discrepancy was centered around Loehmann saying he left for “personal reasons.” Rather, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed news, Loehmann was asked to either leave his position or be fired for being “emotionally unstable” and “unfit for duty.”
﹡Loehmann was sworn in at the borough council meeting on July 5 after a unanimous vote by borough council. Local press were given another name, Timothy Lochmann. But on social media Wednesday, borough president Steve Hazlett said his last name was indeed Loehmann.
