Pepper-spraying sparks outrage
Police threaten Army officer during traffic stop
Virginia’s attorney general, a congressman and the NAACP expressed outrage at the actions of Windsor police officers who pointed weapons, pepper-sprayed and threatened a Black and Latino military officer in December during a traffic stop.
Army Lt. Caron Nazario filed suit against police officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker last month, and video from the officers’ body cameras and Nazario’s cellphone has gone viral.
Nazario seeks $1 million plus punitive damages from the officers, saying they violated his constitutional rights.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said the videos raise the question of whether the officers overreacted and used more force than necessary.
The officers said in the police report that they stopped Nazario’s Chevrolet Tahoe because it didn’t have a rear license plate, although the report acknowledges the officers later noticed a temporary plate displayed in the back window.
Video shows the officers ordering Nazario, who was in uniform, to exit his vehicle outside a gas station as he held his hands up through the driver’s side window. Nazario said he was afraid to get out of the SUV and was blasted with pepper spray and forced to the ground. Nazario was released at the scene and not charged.
“Though Nazario was shocked at the ferociousness of these defendants and the very real possibility that the defendants may murder him because he could not comply with their inconsistent demands, Lt. Nazario remained calm, kept his hands outside the window, and continued to calmly ask the defendants why they pulled him over, and to explain what was going on,” the lawsuit says.
Gutierrez told Nazario he was “fixin’ to ride the lightning, son” – a reference to the electric chair.
The suit says the officers threatened to destroy the lieutenant’s military career with “baseless” criminal charges if he reported them for misconduct.
Video from the scene “captured footage of behavior consistent with a disgusting nationwide trend of law enforcement officers, who, believing they can operate with complete impunity, engage in unprofessional, discourteous, racially biased, dangerous, and sometimes deadly abuses of authority,” the suit says.
Attorney General Mark Herring said he saw nothing in the videos that justifies how the officers treated Nazario.
“Incidents like this are unacceptable,” Herring said in a statement. “As our office continues to monitor the situation, the Windsor Police Department needs to be fully transparent about what happened during the stop and what was done in response to it.”
“The Windsor Police Department needs to be fully transparent about what happened during the stop and what was done in response to it.” Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring
Windsor has a population of about 2,600 people and, according to its website, a six-member police force. The police were unavailable for comment Sunday, and the mayor and Town Council did not respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.
Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., whose district includes Windsor, said he was “horrified” by the video. Scott noted that the area is still mourning the death of Donovan Lynch, who was killed by officers in Virginia Beach last month.
The NAACP said it is launching an investigation into the Windsor Police Department.
The video is evidence “of what the NAACP has been saying all along,” the Isle of Wight branch said. “It appears from the video that our justice is still being abused by police officers and we are very concerned.”