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Uniformed Army Officer Who was Pepper Sprayed and Had Wirons On Him Draws When Traffic Stop Sues Two Cops Involved
A 2nd U.S. Army lieutenant detained with a gun, sprayed pepper and was thrown to the ground by police officers during a stop in Virginia, the two law enforcement officials involved allege. According to the federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District, Caron Nazario, a black and Latin soldier, was dressed in his military fatigue when Windsor police pulled over his SUV on Dec. 20 for what they said were no license plate and windows. . Court in Norfolk and obtained by The Virginian-Pilot. Nazario – who recently bought the vehicle and had a temporary cardboard plate in the window – drove for a short time before pulling the vehicle off the illuminated parking lot of a nearby gas station. Windsor police officer Daniel Crocker, who started the stop, later described the interaction as a “high-risk traffic stop” and said Nazario was an “evasive police officer”, despite acknowledging the low speed of the army officer, according to ‘ a report submitted at the filing. Nazario, according to CNN, came to a halt in the parking lot of the gas station less than a mile and one minute and 40 seconds after Crocker initially turned on his lights. Upon hearing the broadcast over the radio, a second officer, Joe Gutierrez, showed up to give their backing, and both officers immediately drew their guns and began shouting conflicting orders at Nazario. , according to the lawsuit. Nazario told officers he was not trying to evade them, but stopped in a well-lit area “for the safety of the officer and out of respect for the officers,” according to the Associated Press. Viral camera footage of the incident shows that Nazario raised his arms when he was instructed by the two officers to get out of his vehicle. “I’m honestly scared to come out,” Nazario can be heard telling officers. “Yes, it must be you!” responds one of the officers. They kept shouting at him to get out of the car and repeatedly started rinsing in the car with pepper spray when Nazario – who still had his arms raised – said he “did not even want to grab his seat belt”. “My hands are out, can you please – look, it’s really messy,” he said. He also told officers that his dog, who was in a cage in the back of the vehicle, was “choking” from the pepper spray, CNN reported. Nazario got out of the SUV after noticing he was “grabbing my seat belt” and asked for a supervisor, but Gutierrez did “knee attack” on his legs and pushed him to the ground, according to the Associated. Pressure. The officers handcuffed him and later opened a rear window for the dog who was still trapped. Nazario began filming the incident on his cell phone shortly after it came to a halt in the parking lot. His lawyers argued that the footage, along with the officers’ footage of the body of the incident, painted a disturbing picture. “These cameras captured footage consistent with a disgusting nationwide tendency of law enforcement officers, who believe they can work unpunished but engage in unprofessional, rude, racially biased, dangerous and sometimes fatal abuses of authority,” the lawsuit said. Gutierrez later said that although Nazario’s desire to pull over in a well-lit environment was ‘reasonable’ and ‘happens all the time’, mostly if the subject is a minority, the problem was that Nazario did not get out of the vehicle. not. , The lawsuit alleges that the officers realized that they had “acted illegally” and told him that he would let him go without filing a charge if he “would relax and let go”. However, they allegedly threatened that if Nazario refused, he could be charged with obstruction of justice, evading police and assaulting a police officer. In his police report describing the incident, Gutierrez said that according to the Virginian Pilot, they decided to release Nazario after considering several options. “The reason for this decision is simple; the army is the only place where double threat applies. Which means that whatever happened in the civil court, the military can still act against him. “Because I was a military veteran, I did not want to see his career ruined by one wrong decision,” he wrote. Windsor Town manager William Saunders told CNN that Gutierrez had been fired for the incident. “At the end of this investigation, it was established that the policy of Windsor police was not being followed. This has led to disciplinary action, and departmental requirements for additional training have been implemented from January and continue to this day. “Since then, Officer Gutierrez has also been fired,” reads a statement released on Sunday. Crocker continues to work for the department. Windsor police have not yet commented publicly on the case, but Virginia Government Ralph Northam issued a statement on Twitter on Sunday. “The incident in Windsor is disturbing and has angered me – and I recommend the Virginia police to conduct an independent investigation,” Northam said. “Our Commonwealth has done important work on police reform, but we must continue to work to ensure that Virginia people are safe during interactions with the police, that law enforcement is fair and equitable, and that people are held accountable.” Oxygen.com reached out to Nazario’s lawyer, but did not immediately respond.