Tamir Rice's mother, Samaria Rice, submitted dozens of petitions with 170,000 signatures to the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association imploring them to stop defending Timothy Loehmann. If you're unfamiliar with Loehmann, he is the officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014.


The Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association has stood behind Loehmann since horrific video footage of the shooting went viral and shocked the nation. Despite video of Loehmann shooting 12-year-old Rice within 5 seconds of arriving on the scene, he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

"Timothy Loehmann should never have been hired, and he should never have been in a position to take Tamir’s life. He’s unstable, dishonest, dangerous, and he’s already killed unjustly and recklessly," Rice says in her petition.

"He definitely shouldn’t be on the streets with a badge and gun, and ever since he murdered Tamir I’ve been fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen."

He was fired from the Cleveland Police Department in 2017 after an investigation revealed he had lied on his job application about why he was fired. He worked as a police officer in Independence, Ohio and quit when he learned they were going to fire him because they believed he was unstable and unfit to be an officer. 

CPPA President Jeff Follmer has continued to defend Loehmann. In March, the union filed an appeal in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Court to overturn the firing.

Rice said she was astonished that the union continued to defend someone who had violated rules of their own police department. She even said she understands that the union has to defend its officers, but questioned why Loehmann deserved the same defense as other officers who followed the law.

"That is part of their job, but in this situation, Timothy Loehmann was fired for lying on his application. How are we going to trust him in our community if he's lying?" Rice told Cleveland.com.

This is not the first time Rice has been forced to step in to stop an Ohio police department from hiring Loehmann. He was hired last year as a police officer by the town of Bellaire, Ohio. However, the town rescinded their offer after Rice and other protesters showed outrage at the decision. 

"[Loehmann] got cleared through a grand jury, he got cleared through the CERT team that had politicians, police supervisors, patrolmen and civilians on it and the only thing they came up with was the alleged lying on the application," Follmer told a local news outlet on Wednesday.

"We're appealing it and we support him."

Rice has gotten support from the ACLU and a number of local and national politicians. She has spent years battling Follmer and former CPPA President Steve Loomis over Loehmann's fate and their continued support of him. The city cleared both officers involved in the shooting but admitted culpability in court. Ultimately, they settled with Rice and her family for $6 million. 

"Far too often, police unions succeed in quietly getting corrupt and dangerous officers back in their jobs after the public’s attention has moved on. That’s what they’re trying to do here," Rice said in her petition.

"We can stop it from happening — and make it less likely in the future — by publicly confronting the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association."