WASHINGTON: A US police officer has been fired after footage emerged of a Black army officer being detained at gunpoint and pepper-sprayed in the face in Virginia, prompting the state’s governor Sunday to promise a full investigation.
Lieutenant Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, repeatedly asked what he had done wrong and said, “This is really messed up,” as two police officers holding guns demanded he get out of his car.
Wearing his military uniform, Nazario was driving a newly bought SUV in the small Virginia town of Windsor last December when the officers ordered him to pull over because he did not have permanent license plates, news reports said. The police accused him of not cooperating before blasting him with pepper-spray and forcing him to the ground.
Virginia governor Ralph Northam said in a statement he had instructed police to conduct an “independent investigation” into the incident, which he said was “disturbing and angered me.”
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