Virginia Police Chief Says They Don’t Owe Apology To Army Officer They Pepper-Sprayed

The US Army officer pepper-sprayed during a traffic stop doesn’t deserve an apology, according to a Virginia police chief. 

Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, was stopped by officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker at a Windsor petrol station in December last year, after suspecting his new vehicle was missing a license plate. The bodycam footage of the incident has since gone viral, with many taking issue with the use of force and language like ‘ride the lightning’.

Amid that controversy, Chief Rodney Riddle appeared at a press conference to address the criticism around the video. He doesn’t believe the officers who accosted Nazario owe him an apology.

Riddle told NBC 29: ‘I can’t speak for him, but I’m gonna own up to what we did. My guys missed opportunities to verbally de-escalate that thing and change that outcome.’

When a reporter asked if Nazario should receive an official apology, he said: ‘I don’t believe that.’ Riddle said it would have been easier if he ‘complied a whole lot earlier’.

He added: ‘Lieutenant Nazario took certain actions that created where we got to, and I think that you know… we’ll let the courts work that part of it out. At the end of the day, I’m glad nobody got hurt. That situation ended in the best way that it could have.’

Riddle also explained Gutierrez faced disciplinary action in January, but was fired after the video was released to the public. ‘As this thing kind of gathered legs and became viral, I personally felt there was personally no way he could effectively serve the community at that point,’ he said.

He added: ‘That incident is out there it’s over it’s done. We can’t take it back, we can’t fix it, but what we have is an opportunity to learn and to grow and to teach our officers to get some more input from our community.’

Responding to the chief’s comments, community activist Brandon Randleman told the outlet: ‘We cannot believe some of the things that were said during the press conference. It’s time for this police chief to go. How do you as a leader state that… I did not discipline someone because of their actions, I only disciplined because the whole world is watching? That’s not a leader.’

According to USA Today, Nazario’s legal team said Riddle is ‘continuing a false narrative’ over the army officer being blamed for the incident.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]