Phoenix officer in viral video stop of couple has been fired

PHOENIX – A Phoenix police officer involved in a cellphone video showing him threatening to shoot at a family has been fired.

The video, recorded by a bystander on May 27, shows Officer Christopher Meyer pointing a gun at a car occupied by Dravon Ames, his pregnant fiancee, Iesha Harper, and their children.

In the video, Meyer can be heard yelling, using an expletive, “You’re going to get shot” when Ames didn’t immediately open his vehicle’s door.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said the officer was trying to de-escalate the situation.

The couple said the incident stemmed from an anonymous call to police that their daughter stole a doll from a Family Dollar store – something the family says was an accident.

Ames said they were dropping off their daughter at the babysitter’s apartment when an officer stopped them. He said the officers didn’t use lights or sirens before they walked over to the parked car carrying Ames, Harper and their two daughters, ages 4 and 1.

“Next thing you know, a police officer ... comes up, open the door, banging on the window with a gun, saying he’s gonna shoot us in the face, telling us to get out of the car,” Ames said at a news conference.

In a video recorded by a resident of the apartment complex, officers can be heard yelling and cursing at the couple.

Neither Ames nor Harper was charged in connection with the incident. The officers were not wearing body cameras.

“Our officers are dispatched 1,800 times each day when our community needs us, and 99% of the time we get it right,” Williams said at the news conference. “But when we don’t, it does come at a cost. Nearly 4,000 other members of the Phoenix Police Department must bear the burden of that failed contact with our community members.”