The dispatcher who took the 911 call regarding Tamir Rice has been suspended for eight days.
According to a disciplinary letter dated March 10, Police Chief Calvin Williams found that Constance Hollinger “engaged in improper conduct and/or procedure.”
In November 2014 Hollinger received the call, in which the caller said several times the gun Rice was holding was “probably fake.” When Hollinger called Beth Mandi, another dispatcher, she did not relay the fact that the caller said the gun was “probably fake.” Mandi therefore never passed this information to Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garnback, the responding officers who believed Rice was holding a real gun. Upon his arrival, Loehmann (who was still a probationary officer at the time) exited the police cruiser and shot Rice to death within two seconds of arriving on the scene. Neither Loehmann nor Garnback attempted to give Rice medical aid for several minutes. Rice’s gun was later discovered to be a pellet gun. The 12-year-old died at the hospital.
