An appeal has reportedly been filed in Cleveland, Ohio, in support of reinstating fired officer Timothy Loehmann, who shot and killed Tamir Rice in 2014. The request calls for his termination from the Cleveland Police Department to be overturned, Cleveland.com reports.
Henry Hilow, an attorney for the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, hopes to make his case valid for Loehmann’s benefit. He filed the documents on Friday (March 1), at the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Now, the city of Cleveland has a chance to respond to the lawsuit, which will determine Loehmann’s fate within the police department.
Previously, Cleveland’s arbitrator ruled that Loehmann should be fired indefinitely. According to the CPPA President Jeff Folmer, Loehmann lost the case at the time not for shooting Rice, but for lying on his Cleveland Police Department application.
Loehmann killed a then 12-year-old Rice in 2014 after the young boy arrived at the Cudell Recreational Center. At the time of the incident, Loehmann and his partner Officer Frank Garmack were looking for a man with a gun who was instilling fear in others in the area.
When the shooting occurred, Loehmann was with the Cleveland Police Department for eight months, and had reportedly lied about why he resigned from his job at the Independence Police Department; several supervisors found he was not adequate enough to be a policeman there. On the application, he also omitted why he resigned from Independence.
Rice’s family is not content with the appeal. The family’s lawyer, Subodh Chandra, released a statement on Sunday (March 3).
“It is most unfortunate that the CPPA continues to insist it’s okay for a law enforcement officer to lie on his employment application — that is, continues to embrace lawlessness in law enforcement,” Chandra said. “Until the police union comprehends its officers are not above the law, none of us are safe. And Tamir? With a police union as lawless as that, the child never stood a chance.”