By KALLEYA BEYERBACH
Staff Writer
A man named Caron Nazario is an Army lieutenant who was pulled over by the police in Windsor, Va. He is suing, alleging the police, Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker, of using excessive force. When he pulled off of the road and into a gas station, the police shouted at him to put his hands on the window and to turn off the vehicle. Their weapons were drowned as they approached the car. There were 2 officers involved and they said they pulled the Army Lieutenant over because they couldn’t see the temporary license plate on Nazario’s SUV.
They got to his window, still pointing their weapons at him and asked him to get out of the car. Nazario was very confused and responded that he was in the military but the police didn’t seem to care. They told him to get out and threatened to ‘bring him lightning’ if he didn’t cooperate. He responded with being afraid to get out of his car, because he is a black man getting gunned down by white police men. As he tells them he is afraid, an officer responds “you should be.”
Without any warnings, officer Joe Gutierrez pepper sprayed the Army Lieutenant. Nazario then got out of his car before he was forced to the ground and handcuffed. They illegally searched Nazrio’s vehicle and violated his first Amendment right. Not only did Mr. Gutierrez pepper-spray Nazario, but he went on to tell him that he would press charges against him if he didn’t stop arguing with him, that “it wouldn’t change his life either way”.
Because of what happened to Nazario, he told his lawyer that he has recurring nightmares since the encounterment. An internal investigation was called and Gutierrez was terminated by the police department. The Army Lieutenant filed a lawsuit seeking 1 million dollars in damages because of the officers using excessive force for no reason.
Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine called on the Senate to pass police reform bills like the Justice in Policing Act. The VA Legislative Black Caucus called on state lawmakers to support police reform bills because it seemed that too many black people were getting mistreated by the police. Not even a black man serving this country can avoid racist encounters with police. The Windsor PD is now implementing additional training for it’s officers.