*(CNN) — Timothy Loehmann, the former Cleveland, Ohio, police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, resigned from his law enforcement position in Tioga Borough, Pennsylvania, days after he was sworn in, a borough official told CNN Thursday.
Loehmann had been slated to be the only police officer for Tioga Borough, according to the borough’s mayor, David Wilcox, CNN affiliate News 5 Cleveland reported Wednesday. According to the latest Decennial Census data, the rural town in north-central Pennsylvania boasted a population of 606 inhabitants in 2020.
Henry Hilow, an attorney who represents Loehmann, told CNN his client resigned from the Tioga Borough Police Department because of a conflict between Wilcox and the borough council. Loehmann had been sworn into his position earlier the same week by Wilcox, according to Tioga Borough Council President Steve Hazlett.
Both the mayor and the council were apprised of Loehmann’s background, Hilow said, a subject they broached during his interview. However, where the council continued to back Loehmann’s appointment to the police department, Wilcox did not, according to Hilow.
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Loehmann felt the dispute wouldn’t allow him to do his job to the best of his ability, so he resigned, Hilow said.
“He didn’t want to be a distraction for people,” he added. “The situation was discussed, as well as other questions of his qualifications to serve the community. In no way was there deceit by Mr. Loehmann.”
CNN has reached out to Wilcox and his attorney. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wilcox said he was unaware of Loehmann’s background, since the hiring and firing of the borough’s lone officer is the purview of the borough council, News 5 reported. Wilcox attended Loehmann’s interview — during which the ex-officer’s time in Cleveland was discussed, though his involvement in Rice’s death was not mentioned — after which Loehmann was “unanimously approved” by the council, News 5 reported.
“I was not allowed to take his resume or look into his background,” News 5 quoted the mayor as saying.
According to Hilow, the mayor was well aware of Loehmann’s background prior to his swearing-in.
“It is disingenuous for the mayor to say otherwise,” Hilow told CNN in a statement.
Hazlett confirmed to CNN that Loehmann has “withdrawn his application” and subsequently clarified that by “application” he meant Loehmann’s position in the Tioga Borough Police Department.
Other borough officials did not respond to CNN’s questions about Loehmann’s employment history.
On November 22, 2014, Loehmann fatally shot Tamir Rice at a playground, three seconds after getting out of his patrol car, CNN previously reported.
At the time he was shot, Rice was holding a toy replica pistol. A witness called 911, reporting that an individual brandishing a firearm was in a park. The caller said the firearm was likely fake — but that information was not relayed to the dispatched officers. Loehmann was a trainee at the time.
An Ohio grand jury declined to criminally charge the officers in 2015.
Loehmann was eventually fired in 2017 — not for the shooting, but because investigators found he wasn’t truthful about his employment history when he applied for the job.
The-CNN-Wire
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