Ocoee Police Department fires officer for his use of racial slur

A longtime Ocoee police officer has been fired after he was accused of using a racial slur during a conversation with a fellow employee, the department announced Thursday night.

Lt. William Wagner used the “n-word” while talking with Officer Bruce Riggins in the Police Department parking lot Sept. 26, according to an internal affairs investigation.

“The Ocoee Police Department holds all members of the department to the highest standards of the law-enforcement profession, and Lieutenant Wagner’s behavior has fallen short,” Police Chief Charles J. Brown said in a statement. “I am deeply troubled by his use of a racial slur, which is not only offensive and unacceptable.”

During the September conversation, the officers were discussing Hurricane Irma when Wagner showed Riggins photographs of his damaged home on his phone. Riggins said Wagner called it “his n----- house.”

He said Wagner apologized for the comment, and Riggins told a corporal and a sergeant about the conversation.

Wagner self-reported the incident to the police chief, who suspended him and launched an internal investigation led by Sgt. James Berish.

In an interview during the investigation, Wagner expressed remorse and said he was frustrated by the hurricane damage to his home.

“I’m extremely sorry for what I said,” he told Berish. “I didn’t mean it. … I didn’t say it in a racial term. I said it in a socioeconomic term.”

Brown said Wagner’s actions undermine the work Ocoee police officers do to build trust and respect in the community.

“We will always be committed to transparency and accountability,” he said.

Wagner had been with the Ocoee Police Department since October 1998 and worked in Colorado before that, according to a deputy chief.