![The garden outside Cudell Recreation Center became a memorial to the shooting. The gazebo was moved to Chicago where it was preserved and reconstructed "as a community space for care, dialogue, and public engagement," according to the Rebuild Foundation. [Annie Wu / ideastream]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/55b708b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/980x551+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F3%2F11%2Fricememorial_wu.jpg)
It appears unlikely Timothy Loehmann, the officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice in 2014, will ever get his job back with Cleveland Division of Police.
The 8th District Court of Appeals in Cuyahoga County dismissed the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association’s appeal of Loehmann’s firing Thursday.
The court ruled that, because an application to overturn the firing was not submitted within the required three-month window after an arbitrator upheld the city’s decision to fire Loehmann, it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
The City of Cleveland fired Loehmann in 2017 for failing to disclose on his job application that supervisors at a previous job with Independence police recommended firing him after a series of rules violations and signs he was unfit for police work.
Loehmann fatally shot Rice within seconds of arriving at a city park where the 12-year-old was playing with what turned out to be an air gun. A 911 caller said the gun was “probably fake,” but that information was not relayed to responding officers.
Internal reviews did not fault Loehmann for firing his weapon.
While Loehmann and Frank Garmback, the officer driving the patrol car when Loehmann shot Rice, were never charged for a crime in the killing, the city settled a lawsuit with Rice’s family for $6 million in 2016.
