CLEVELAND — An appeals court in Cleveland ruled Thursday that the white Cleveland police officer who killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center, should not get his job back.
The 8th District Court of Appeals in its ruling dismissed an appeal by the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, finding that the police union failed to timely serve Cleveland city attorneys with its application to overturn an arbitrator’s decision on Timothy Loehmann’s firing, cleveland.com reported.
Loehmann wasn’t fired in October 2016 for killing Tamir at a Cleveland recreation center in 2014, but rather for lying on his application to become a Cleveland police officer. He was fired in October 2016.
Tamir was killed in November 2014, sparking outrage and protests. Cleveland paid $6 million to his family to settle a lawsuit.
Union president Jeff Follmer said the case will be appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.
“It’s disappointing that the decision wasn’t on the merits of the appeal,” Follmer said. “We feel that the city was notified correctly. We have a timeline where everything was notified to the city.”
