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Black and Latino Army officer sues police over traffic stop where he was pepper-sprayed

11 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

An Army officer is suing two Virginia police officers after he said they drew their guns and pepper-sprayed him during a traffic stop in December, WTKR reports.

Why it matters: Footage of the incident has drawn widespread criticism from leaders and groups in the state. Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, is heard saying “I’m honestly afraid to get out," to which a police officer responds “Yeah, you should be," in a video from a body-worn camera.

State of play: An incident report by police officer Joe Gutierrez said Nazario did not comply to commands, per WTKR, and police said Nazario was driving a car with tinted windows and no rear license plate. They said he had been "eluding police."

  • Nazario's lawyer says the Army officer was trying to stop at a well-lit area. He says his Fourth Amendment rights were violated and is suing Gutierrez and officer Daniel Crocker for $1 million in damages.

What they're saying: U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) who represents Windsor, Va. where the incident occurred, said the stop highlights the need for police reform, and urged the Senate to approve the police reform bill that has passed in the House.

“I was horrified when I viewed the recently released video footage of the police treatment of Caron Nazario, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. This should have been a routine traffic stop and the video speaks for itself. The release of this video also comes while the Hampton Roads community is still mourning the loss of Donovan Lynch who was killed by officers while their body worn cameras were not activated. Both of these instances should be investigated by federal authorities.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said his office is monitoring the situation, and the Isle of Wight NAACP said it is launching an investigation into the Windsor Police department with Herring's support.

  • "We are done dying," the branch wrote on Facebook. "We will not stand silently while another African American's civil rights are violated."
  • The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus in a statement called for the officers to be investigated, and said the state needs to "revolutionize police accountability"

Incidents like this are unacceptable. 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.pic.twitter.com/YXVEGUWMeh

— Mark Herring (@MarkHerringVA) April 10, 2021

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Norfolk, says the officers said they would file felony charges that would have impacted Nazario's career.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.