Replies to post #44999 on Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[BullNBear52]

Police officer fired after threatening Black Army officer during traffic stop
David K. Li and Tim Stelloh
Sun, April 11, 2021, 10:06 PM
State authorities in Virginia will investigate an encounter captured on body camera that appears to show a police officer threatening to execute a Black Army officer during a traffic stop, officials said Sunday.

The announcement from the Virginia State Police came after Gov. Ralph Northam said he was “angered” by the incident, which occurred on Dec. 5 on a road about 30 miles west of downtown Norfolk.

“Our commonwealth has done important work on police reform, but we must keep working to ensure that Virginians are safe during interactions with police, the enforcement of laws is fair and equitable, and people are held accountable,” he said.

Northam added that he would invite the U.S. Army officer, Lt. Caron Nazario, for a meeting to discuss police reform.

In a statement, a state police spokeswoman said the department’s superintendent had been in touch with the governor and Rodney Riddle, the police chief of Windsor, where the confrontation occurred.

“At Chief Riddle's request and the Governor's directive, the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation is initiating a thorough and objective criminal investigation into the Dec. 5, 2020 traffic stop conducted by the Windsor police officers,” she said.

Windsor’s town manager said in a statement that an internal investigation found that the officers who pulled Nazario over — Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker — did not follow departmental policy. They were disciplined and ordered to take additional training, said the manager, William Saunders.

Gutierrez was later fired, Saunders said.

“The town of Windsor has remained transparent about this event since the initial stop, and has openly provided documents and related video to attorneys for Lt. Nazario,” he said.

US Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario was driving his newly-purchased Chevy Tahoe home when two police officers pulled him over in Windsor, Va.on December 5, 2020.
US Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario was driving his newly-purchased Chevy Tahoe home when two police officers pulled him over in Windsor, Va.on December 5, 2020.
In a federal civil lawsuit filed last week, Nazario said he was driving in a newly purchased Chevrolet Tahoe when he encountered police on U.S. Highway 460 in Windsor. He was in uniform at the time of the stop.

Nazario, who is Black and Latino, conceded in his complaint that he didn't immediately pull over. He instead put on his emergency lights and continued for another 100 seconds, driving under the speed limit, so he could safely park in a well-lit gas station parking lot less than a mile down the road.

That's when Windsor police Officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker pulled guns on Nazario, who was accused of driving without license plates, according to the lawsuit and body camera footage.

Nazario insisted he followed police commands to keep his hands outside the window, but officers allegedly became agitated when he asked what justified the escalated pullover.

"What's going on? You're fixin' to ride the lighting, son," Gutierrez said, according to the lawsuit and body camera video.

"This is a colloquial expression for an execution, originating from glib reference to execution by the electric chair," Nazario's attorney Jonathan Arthur wrote in the lawsuit.

Virginia recently outlawed capital punishment, but put prisoners to death via the electric chair for more than a century. The last prisoner to meet that grisly fate was Robert Charles Gleason Jr., 42, who pleaded guilty to two prison murders and threatened to continue killing until he received the death penalty. He was electrocuted on Jan. 16, 2013.

Nazario told police that he was “honestly afraid to get out” of his SUV, video of the incident showed, before Officer Gutierrez replied, “Yeah, you should be!”

Footage also showed Nazario being pepper-sprayed multiple times, "causing him substantial and immediate pain," the lawsuit said. It also led to "substantial property damage to Lt. Nazario's vehicle and choked Lt. Nazario's dog, who was sitting in the rear of Lt. Nazario's vehicle, secured in a crate," according to the suit.

"Gutierrez responded with knee-strikes to Lt. Nazario's legs to force an already compliant and blinded Lt. Nazario down on his face ostensibly to handcuff him," Arthur wrote. "Notwithstanding the fact that Nazario was on the ground and in tears, Gutierrez and Crocker continued to strike Lt. Nazario."

The officers later warned Nazario not to complain about their treatment of him, threatening to criminally charge him, the lawsuit said. If the lieutenant would "chill and let this go," then no charges would be filed, according to Arthur.

Nazario was ultimately not criminally charged or cited for any traffic violation, his attorney said. A new vehicle tag was clearly visible in Lt. Nazario's rear window, Arthur claimed.

The officers could not be immediately reached for comment through publicly listed phone numbers.

A town manager told the Virginian Pilot that the officers still work for the police department.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/police-accused-threatening-pulling-gun-215052870.html

[scion]

The Minnesota officer who killed Daunte Wright will be charged with manslaughter.

April 14, 2021, 12:06 p.m. ET8 minutes ago
8 minutes ago
By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/kim-potter-charged-daunte-wright.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — The white Minnesota police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, after appearing to mistake her handgun for her Taser will be charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday, a prosecutor said, following three nights of protests over the killing.

The charges against the officer, Kimberly A. Potter, come a day after she and the police chief both resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department. Hundreds of people have faced off with the police in Brooklyn Center each night since Mr. Wright’s death, and residents across the region are preparing for a verdict next week in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer charged with murdering George Floyd.

Pete Orput, the top prosecutor in Washington County, said in an email to The New York Times on Wednesday that the complaint would be filed later on Wednesday.

Ms. Potter, 48, had served on the force for 26 years and was training other officers when they pulled Mr. Wright’s car over on Sunday afternoon, saying he had an expired registration on his car and something hanging from his rearview mirror. When officers discovered that Mr. Wright had a warrant out for his arrest and tried to arrest him, he twisted away and got back into his car.

Ms. Potter warned him that she would Tase him and then shouted “Taser” three times before firing a bullet into his chest, killing him. “I just shot him,” Ms. Potter says in body-camera footage that was released this week.

The killing has brought hundreds of people to the Brooklyn Center Police Department each night, where they have been met by Minnesota National Guard members and State Patrol troopers who have fired tear gas, rubber bullets and other projectiles at the crowd. Some of the demonstrators have launched fireworks and thrown rocks and bottles of water at the police. Officers arrested 79 people on Tuesday night. Dozens of businesses in the region were broken into earlier in the week, but there were few reports of looting on Tuesday.

The local government in Brooklyn Center, a city of about 30,000 people, has also been in crisis. The City Council gave the mayor more authority in the wake of Mr. Wright’s death and the city manager, who had previously overseen the Police Department, was fired.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a state agency that investigated Mr. Floyd’s death in May, has led the inquiry into the killing.


Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national news. He is from upstate New York and previously reported in Baltimore, Albany, and Isla Vista, Calif. @nickatnews

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/kim-potter-charged-daunte-wright.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes


Axios @axios Replying to
@axios

Second-degree manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, according to Minnesota law.

BREAKING: Officer Kim Potter to be charged with manslaughter in Daunte Wright's death https://t.co/OSHc8bkwpB

— Axios (@axios) April 14, 2021