Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, has filed a lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated during a traffic stop in Windsor, Virginia. The complaint alleges Officers Joe Gutierrez and his partner Daniel Crocker decided to “pull their weapons, illegally detain Lt. Nazario, threaten to murder him, illegally spray him with [pepper spray], and illegally searched his vehicle.” This came after the pair pulled Nazario over because they thought he didn’t have a license plate on his car. In reality, the complaint explains he was driving a new vehicle with “cardboard temporary plates taped to the inside of the rear window of the vehicle at the top and on the passenger side, visible from behind.” That is visible in a video released by police.
https://twitter.com/kirkacevedo/status/1380858745677258755
In the video you also see Nazario ask the officers “What’s going on?” At one point Gutierrez responded, “What’s going on is you’re fixing to ride the lightning, son.”
The murder threat, the complaint claims, comes from Gutierrez’s comment that Nazario was fixing to “ride the lightning” — a colloquial expression for execution that refers to death by electric chair.
In the police report, Gutierrez indicates that he threatened to use his Taser on Nazario. Nazario’s lawyer, Jonathan Arthur, told NPR that even if Gutierrez meant to refer to using a Taser on Nazario when he talked about riding the lightning, he said, the video “leaves little doubt” that he also “meant and intended every word of the implicit meaning.”
I’m thankful that U.S. Army Lt. Caron Nazario is alive.
How gravely inhumane and traumatizing is it that our history and present alert us that Windsor police could have shot and killed him for refusing to “comply” with their sick egos and racism?
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) April 11, 2021
Nazario was released at the scene and no charges were ever filed. The Washington Post adds:
In a town statement Sunday night, officials said Windsor “acknowledges the unfortunate events that transpired.” It said an internal police investigation showed department policy wasn’t followed during the incident.
“This resulted in disciplinary action, and department-wide requirements for additional training were implemented beginning in January and continue up to the present,” the statement said. “Since that time, Officer Gutierrez was also terminated from his employment.”
My statement on the encounter between Lieutenant Caron Nazario and two officers from the Windsor Police Department: pic.twitter.com/GcfL5YeIRm
— Governor Ralph Northam (@VAGovernor73) April 11, 2021
Watch more above from the NBC affiliate in Roanoke, Virginia above.