Cop Who Shot and Killed 12-Year-Old Boy Was Virtually Insane — Records Show: He Was Forced To Leave Suburban Police Job — Was Inflicted On Urban Area

“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal; dangerous loss of composure during live range training and his inability to manage this personal stress; distracted and weepy."

Officer Tim Loehmann.

By Joshua Barajas
The Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice last week was previously “distracted” and “weepy” during his firearms qualification training at a suburban Ohio police department, new internal documents revealed Wednesday.

During his brief tenure at the Independence, Ohio Police Department, Deputy Chief Jim Polak said Tim Loehmann’s handgun performance was poor.

“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” Polak said in a letter to human resources, dated November 29, 2012, found in Loehmann’s personnel file.

Polak added that he did not believe Loehmann was mature enough to work at IPD, due to a “dangerous loss of composure during live range training and his inability to manage this personal stress.”

Polak recommended that the department terminate Loehmann in December 2012. Shortly after, Loehmann resigned, citing personal reasons.

Loehmann’s father, Fred Loehmann, told Cleveland.com that his son left Independence because “he soon grew tired of the slow pace of suburban policing.”

Tamir Rice.

Loehmann was hired by the Cleveland Police Department in March 2014. In the documents, it’s not immediately clear whether Cleveland police officials saw Loehmann’s Independence personnel file, however, the Cleveland Police Department told Buzzfeed on Wednesday that it did not review Loehmann’s Independence Police Department personnel file before he was hired.

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