According to Ohio court documents, the city of Cleveland argued that Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot by a city police officer last year, caused his own death, reported Raw Story.
According to the documents, the “Plaintiffs’ decedent’s injuries, losses, and damages complained of, were directly and proximately caused by the failure of Plaintiffs’ decedent to exercise due care to avoid injury.” In short, the city says Tamir Rice was responsible for being shot by the unfit Cleveland PD officer, Tim Loehmann.
What’s more, the city even argued that the late Tamir Rice is also responsible for his family’s pain and suffering.
This argument was the city’s response to a lawsuit filed by family members of Tamir Rice, who believe that Officer Loehmann overreacted when he shot and killed the 12-year-old boy.
Surveillance footage of the shooting filmed at Cleveland’s Cudell Commons Park showed Loehmann, with his partner, Frank Garmback, pulling close to Tamir Rice after receiving a call. In the footage, Loehmann immediately gets out of the passenger side and opens fire on the child before his partner even opens his door. The shooting was an overreaction by a trigger-happy, unstable cop.
Loehmann has a checkered professional history with several other police departments. Loehmann served as an officer with the Independence, Ohio Police Department where he was deemed unfit to serve in 2012. The department also noted undisciplined pistol-handling.
“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” said Independence Deputy Chief Jim Polak. He also said that Loehmann was “not mature enough in his accepting of responsibility or his understanding the severity of his loss of control on the [gun] range.”
The following year, Loehmann failed a psychological profiling exam given by the Cuyahoga Sheriff’s Department in 2013. He scored a 46 on a test that requires a minimum score of 70.
The city clearly didn’t consider these facts seriously, that is, if the city even considered them at all. Loehmann wasn’t an endangered police officer acting under duress. He’s an unstable gunman with a badge and legal license to kill.
