The officer who pepper-sprayed an Army official during a traffic stop lost his job because the video went viral, a Virginia police chief said.
Windsor Police Chief Rodney Riddle and Windsor Town Manager William Saunders took questions Wednesday about the incident between Officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker and 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario that occurred in December 2020. The Army member filed a lawsuit on April 2, alleging the officers violated his First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights.
Nazario is seeking $1 million in damages, saying officers used excessive force and racially profiled him.
BIRACIAL ARMY OFFICER SUES VIRGINIA POLICE OFFICERS WHO ALLEGEDLY THREATENED HIM DURING TRAFFIC STOP
The department opened an internal investigation into the incident on Dec. 8, 2020, which concluded Jan. 28, and disciplinary actions were taken, Riddle said. He did not specify the actions.
Gutierrez was fired Sunday, months after the investigation had been completed.
“As this thing kind of gathered legs and became viral, I personally felt there was no way he could continue to serve our community,” Riddle said, according to the Washington Post.
Officers initiated a traffic stop on the evening of Dec. 5, 2020, alleging that Nazario didn’t have a rear license plate affixed to his vehicle, though he had temporary tags, according to the legal filing, but didn’t pull over immediately. Instead, he drove an additional one minute and 40 seconds until he pulled into a well-lit BP gas station.
Both officers, once Nazario had pulled over, “exited their vehicles and immediately trained their firearms on Lt. Nazario and subsequently threatened to murder him,” according to the filing.
The officers made Nazario exit the vehicle, but not before Gutierrez said Nazario was “fixin’ to ride the lightning,” which Nazario’s lawsuit claimed is a colloquialism referring to an execution. The Army soldier said he was “afraid to get out,” to which the officer responded, “Yeah, you should be.”
Gutierrez pepper-sprayed Nazario at one point as well.
“That video is horrible. It doesn’t speak well of the way the police officer handled the situation,” Riddle said, adding that’s “not how it’s done … That was inexcusable. It made me mad.”
Nazario held some responsibility for the situation, Riddle claimed.
“Lt. Nazario took certain actions that created where we got to, and I think we’ll let the courts work that part of it out,” he said.
“I’m glad that he’s OK. At the end of the day, I’m glad nobody got hurt, that situation ended the best way it could’ve. I wish he had complied a lot earlier,” he continued, adding that he doesn’t believe Nazario is due an apology.
Valerie Butler, the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president, called for Riddle’s resignation following the press conference.
“After watching the press conference held by officials in the Town of Windsor regarding the incident involving Lt Nazario we are appalled at some of the statements made by the Town officials as well as the Chief of Police,” she said in a statement on social media. “Therefore we are calling for the immediate resignation of Chief Rodney Riddle.”
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Riddle’s comments were evidence of “the systemic policing issues that generate civil rights violations across the country,” said Jonathan Arthur, Nazario’s lawyer.
Crocker, the other officer, is a recent graduate of the police academy and was supposed to be training under Gutierrez. The chief praised Crocker, saying the video showed “several times” where he “makes an effort to de-escalate.”
Concerns around law enforcement’s use of excessive force have caused protests and rioting nationally.
In Minnesota, Kimberly Potter, a former officer and 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was charged with second-degree manslaughter Wednesday in connection to the death of Daunte Wright. As the city rebounds from the tragedy, the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former officer accused of killing George Floyd, is ongoing.
