Officer who fatally shot Tamir Rice resigns from police department in West Virginia amid public outrage

The former Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 has resigned from a small police department in West Virginia.

Timothy Loehmann had been hired to work as a probationary police officer and an at-will employee for the city of White Sulphur Springs in southeastern West Virginia, Mayor Kathy Glover said in a statement to NBC News on Monday announcing his resignation. White Sulpher Springs is about 370 miles from Cleveland and has a population of roughly 2,220.

“As of July 1, 2024, Timothy Loehmann has resigned his position and is no longer an employee” with the city, she said, adding that, because it was a personnel matter, she would have no further comment.

Glover did not immediately return a request for comment about when Loehmann was hired and whether she had signed off on it. Her statement said Loehmann had been hired at the request and recommendation of the chief of police.

This is the second time Loehmann has resigned from a police department since he left Cleveland.

Earlier Monday, before the mayor’s announcement, White Sulphur Springs City Council member Thomas Taylor confirmed Loehmann’s hiring to NBC News. It was first reported by The Real WV, a nonprofit multimedia organization. Taylor said in an interview that only the police chief and the mayor had the power to hire Loehmann and that the city council had no authority over personnel issues and was not involved in his hiring.

“From what I understand, the chief of police hired him,” Taylor said.

He said the decision had spurred backlash on social media and he anticipated the matter would be raised at the next city council meeting, which is scheduled to take place next Monday.

Reached by phone Monday morning, Chief D.S. Teubert said he was not at liberty to speak about Loehmann but said he may be at a later time. He did not return requests for comment after Loehmann’s resignation was announced.

Teubert confirmed to Cleveland.com that he hired Loehmann. He said that he spent a year or so looking into Loehmann’s background — which included watching videos and reading about Tamir’s killing.

“Just as a person, I looked at the whole situation,” Teubert told the outlet. “I did a background check. I researched everything. It’s just a sad situation. Does any police officer in the world stand a chance when they’re involved in a shooting? Do they deserve to never work again as a police officer, or is it just this shooting?”

Tamir, who was Black, was playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland on Nov. 22, 2014, when he was shot and killed by Loehmann seconds after Loehmann and his then-partner, a veteran training officer, arrived.

Loehmann and his then-partner, Frank Garmback, had been responding to a call of someone pointing a gun at people. The caller told a 911 dispatcher that it was probably a juvenile and that the gun looked fake but that was never relayed to Loehmann and Garmback. Both men said in statements after the shooting that Loehmann had given Tamir multiple commands to show his hands before he shot him.

The shooting sparked months of protests over police treatment of Black people. A state grand jury decided not to indict Loehmann or Garmback. In May 2017, about three years after he killed Tamir, Loehmann was fired by the Cleveland Police Department, which said his 2013 application contained inaccuracies. In December 2020, the Justice Department announced that it would not bring federal criminal charges against Loehmann and Garmback, saying quality of the video of the shooting was too poor for prosecutors to conclusively establish what happened.

A message left at a number publicly listed for Loehmann was not immediately returned. He has twice before left jobs at small police departments. In 2022, he resigned from a position with the police department in Tioga, Pennsylvania, after his hiring drew backlash, his attorney Henry Hilow said at the time. And in 2018, he withdrew his application to become a part-time police officer in Bellaire, Ohio, the department’s police chief said then following protests from Tamir’s mother and others.

Teubert told Cleveland.com that he met Loehmann through friends in the military, and that he did not believe Loehmann had done anything wrong.

“What crime was he convicted of?” Teubert said. “I just want everyone to be fair about this whole thing. If I thought he had done something illegal or wrong in any way I wouldn’t have hired him.”

Teubert also expressed surprise that the hiring had drawn attention.

“I know there are two sides to every story, but people just aren’t looking at what happened,” Teubert said. “It’s a sad, sad thing that that young man lost his life. I take nothing away from that.”

Cleveland settled a lawsuit with Tamir’s family for $6 million. There was no admission of wrongdoing in the settlement.

Subodh Chandra, an attorney who represented the estate of Tamir Rice and his family, said Loehmann should never again be entrusted with a badge and gun and questioned why he insists on working as a police officer.

“Timothy Loehmann should be radioactive to any sensible member of law enforcement or any community,” Chandra said.