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NPR, formerly National Public Radio, reports
Timothy Loehmann, the police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, was fired by the Cleveland Police Department [May 30]. At a news conference, city authorities announced that the reason for his termination wasn't the deadly incident that brought him to national attention, but rather violations he committed in the course of his hiring process.
"Patrol officer Loehmann had been charged with rule violations concerning his application process to be considered a cadet with the Division of Police--specifically, answers he had provided on his personal history statement", Michael McGrath, the city's director of public safety, told reporters in prepared remarks.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer explains that Loehmann failed to disclose the full circumstances of how his time at a previous police department ended:
"Loehmann was allowed to resign from the Independence department after six months following a series of incidents where supervisors determined he was unfit to be a police officer.
"The disciplinary letter cites a letter in Loehmann's personnel file from Independence that says he was emotionally immature and had 'an inability to emotionally function'. The letter also cites an emotional breakdown Loehmann had on the gun range in Independence."
Cleveland authorities also announced that Frank Garmback, the officer driving the patrol car at the time Loehmann shot Tamir, would be suspended for 10 days for administrative rule violations of his own. He would also be required to take a tactical training course.
The penalties cap a review process conducted by Cleveland's Critical Incident Review Committee, or CIRC, in the wake of Tamir's death and the widespread protests it elicited. As the Plain Dealer reported last month, CIRC already "found no fault in the officers' actions leading up to, during and after the Nov. 22, 2014 shooting at Cudell Recreation Center on Cleveland's West Side".
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday June 02 2017, @07:34PM (1 child)
It's legal for a kid to do that. Heck, it's perfectly legal in Ohio to walk through a public park with a real loaded AR-15 over your shoulder.
Yes, they did train the cops on how to approach a possibly-armed suspect, and the cops in question did not remotely follow the established department procedure for handling this. And if they had followed procedure, this whole thing should have amounted to was from a distance, yelling "Hey, put your hands in the air, and keep 'em where I can see 'em! Now I'm going to come over there and pat you down for any weapons you might be carrying." Then they'd approach, and the conversation might have gone something like this: "What's this? Oh, it's a toy? Let me take a closer look at it. OK, you need to understand something - you almost got yourself shot today because some people thought this was a real gun. I'm going to put some orange tape on the tip like it's supposed to have, you're going to put this away, and we're going to tell your mother what's happened here today. Do you understand?"
Also, there's no such thing as "negligent manslaughter". The proper charges here include manslaughter (for the shooting), assault (for beating up his sister), perjury (for lying about everything in sworn statements), and obstruction of justice (for deliberately trying to destroy evidence).
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @05:08PM
"Also, there's no such thing as "negligent manslaughter"."
i knew that. the whole post was sarcasm mixed with reality and in this case, laws that don't exist but maybe should, as we are woefully short on laws in this country. i thought it was obvious. :)