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A former Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014 withdrew from police in a small town in Pennsylvania on Thursday during media scrutiny of community backlash and his employment.
Timothy Lehmann has sworn this week as the only police officer in Tioga, a community of about 600 people living in rural Pennsylvania, 300 miles (483 km) from Cleveland. Steve Hazlet, Chairman of the Autonomous Region Council.
“The community spoke. They elicited their feelings, and we listened to them, and we’re going to react to it, and that’s what it will be,” he called. I told the Associated Press in an interview. “We thank the community for moving forward and listening to them.”
Rice, a black man, was playing with a pellet gun outside the Cleveland Recreation Center on November 22, 2014. At that time, a few seconds after Lehman and his partner arrived, he was shot and killed by Lehman. Police officers told investigators that Lehmann yelled at Tamil three times to raise his hand.
The shooting triggered community protests about the treatment of black police, especially after the grand jury decided not to prosecute a white officer or his partner.
Cleveland settled a proceeding over Tamir’s death for $ 6 million, and the city eventually fired Lehmann for lying to his application to become a police officer.
Since then, Lehmann has tried many times to find a job in law enforcement. He got a part-time job at a police station in the village of Berea in southeastern Ohio in October 2018, but withdrew his application a few days after Tamir’s mother, Samaria, and others criticized the hire.
The situation of Lehmann’s recruitment at Tioga remained a mystery on Thursday.
Hazlet did not say whether Lehmann told the council about the Tamil Rice case at the time of filing, or whether he knew his background when the council voted to hire him. “The process is private and personal. We don’t share it. It doesn’t leave his folders,” he said.
Mayor David Wilcox Told to cleveland.com Wilcox did not return a message from the AP, saying he was not involved in the recruitment process, “I got the impression that he had a thorough background check and was fine.”
Autonomous region Said on that website On Thursday, Lehmann “formally prepared his application.” Mr Hazlet said Congress will meet next week to take action on Lehmann’s application and consider the next steps.
The word he was hired A new Tioga police officer drew protesters to the autonomous region building Wednesday night, urging criticism from Tamil’s family.
“It’s all good that Lehman doesn’t impose terrorism on Tioga residents and visitors with badges and guns, but autonomous officials are against their apparent and terribly poor judgment and incompetence. We must take responsibility, “Subodh Chandra, one of the lawyers representing the family in a civil lawsuit, said in a statement Thursday.
“This game of Whac-A-Mole with Roman needs to surface shamelessly and repeatedly as a police officer elsewhere,” he said.
The message was left on the phone number associated with Lehman.
Mr Hazlet said the council did not ask Lehmann to resign and refused to speculate on whether the council would resign if Lehmann did not make the first move.
He said Tioga still wants to hire a police officer.
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