Va. chief: No apology for traffic stop

PETERSBURG, Va. – While he said he felt bad for how the events of a traffic stop late last year unfolded, the police chief of the town where a Black and Latino military officer from Petersburg was accosted by two of his officers and pepper sprayed said he does not think the soldier is in need of an official apology.

In response, Army Lt. Caron Nazario’s legal team said Windsor Police Department Chief Rodney D. Riddle “continues a false narrative” of the case and blaming their client for initiating it. They said the video of the stop “shows otherwise” that their client was nothing but compliant.

“I’m gonna own what we did,” Riddle said Wednesday. “My guys missed opportunities to verbally deescalate that thing and change that outcome.”

When asked by a reporter if Nazario was owed an apology for that, Riddle replied: “I don’t believe that,” adding he wished the driver “would have complied a whole lot earlier.”

Earlier this month, Nazario’s attorney filed a $1million lawsuit against the officers in Norfolk federal court.