Cop is sacked for pepper-spraying soldier 4 times at traffic stop
A US police officer caught on camera pepper-spraying a soldier during a traffic stop has been fired.
Body camera footage showed Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario saying that he is ‘honestly afraid to get out’ of his car after being stopped by officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker.
Gutierrez had his gun pointed at the black-Latino soldier – who was in uniform and had his hands raised in the air – and replied: ‘Yeah dude, you should be.’
Lt Nazario, who serves with the US Army Medical Corps, was then allegedly pepperlast sprayed four times in the face before being knocked to the ground as he staggered out of his newly bought vehicle, a Chevrolet Tahoe.
He could be heard pleading: ‘I’ve not committed any crime.’ Gutierrez told Lt Nazario at one point: ‘You’re fixin’ to ride the lighting, son’, a reference to the electric chair.
Lt Nazario was released without charge. He filed a civil suit week claiming a violation of his constitutional rights. Lt Nazario was pulled over in Windsor, Virginia, last December by the officers who claimed his vehicle had tinted windows and no rear number plate.
Crocker wrote in a report that he believed Lt Nazario was ‘eluding police’ and that he considered it a ‘high-risk traffic stop’. However, the lawsuit countered that he was not trying to elude the officers and instead was trying to stop in a well-lit area.
An internal inquiry concluded ‘Windsor Police Department policy was not followed’ in the arrest and Gutierrez was fired.
‘Not committed any crime’