Tamir Rice

People

Tamir Rice

Outcome

unknown

On November 22, 2014, shortly after 3:30 p.m., Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy, was shot by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehmann at the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Loehmann fired within two seconds of his police cruiser skidding to a stop near the child. Tamir died at the hospital the following day. A judge later wrote that he was "thunderstruck by how quickly this event turned deadly." Tamir had been playing in the park with an Airsoft replica pellet gun that was missing the orange safety tip that indicates a toy. A 911 caller sitting in a nearby gazebo reported that someone was pointing "a pistol" at random people. Critically, the caller twice told the dispatcher that the gun was "probably fake" and that the person was "probably a juvenile." The dispatcher, Constance Hollinger, did not relay either piece of information to the responding officers, Timothy Loehmann (age 26) and Frank Garmback (age 46). When the officers arrived, their cruiser pulled up within feet of Tamir. According to Loehmann, he ordered Tamir to raise his hands three times as the car approached, but this could not be verified as the surveillance video had no audio. Within two seconds of the car stopping, Loehmann opened the passenger door and fired two shots at Tamir from approximately ten feet away. Tamir fell immediately. He received first aid approximately four minutes later when another Cleveland police officer and an FBI agent arrived at the scene. EMS arrived three minutes after that. Tamir died at the hospital on November 23, 2014. His death was ruled a homicide—cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso with injuries to a major vessel, intestines, and pelvis. In the aftermath, it was revealed that Loehmann had been deemed "emotionally unstable" and "unfit for duty" at his previous police job in Independence, Ohio, and had resigned rather than face termination. He did not disclose this on his Cleveland application, and Cleveland did not review his personnel file before hiring him. Despite a judge's opinion that both officers should be charged with homicide, a grand jury declined to indict either officer on December 28, 2015. In 2017, Cleveland police fired Loehmann—not for the shooting but for lying on his job application. The dispatcher, Constance Hollinger, was suspended for eight days in March 2017 for failing to relay the caller's statements. The City of Cleveland paid $6 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tamir's family. Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who had presented the case to the grand jury, lost his re-election bid in March 2016.