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April 13th, 2021 
Awake Goy
Recorded on video shooting OC spray
directly into the face of a U.S. Army Lieutenant with his empty hands in the
air, two Virginia police officers have recently been named in a civil rights
lawsuit. According to the complaint, the officers wrote false statements in
their police reports to justify the use of excessive force without making an
arrest.
Shortly after 6:30 p.m. on December
5, 2020, Caron Nazario, a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was
driving home in his newly purchased 2020 Chevy Tahoe when Windsor Police
Officer Daniel Crocker initiated a traffic stop for driving without a rear
license plate and tinted windows. As Lt. Nazario activated his turn signal and
slowed down to stop at a well-lit BP gas station, Officer Crocker contacted
dispatch via police radio and relayed that the vehicle was slowing down and
appeared to be complying.
According to police body cam footage, Crocker ordered
Nazario to place his hands outside the vehicle window when Officer Joe
Gutierrez arrived at the scene. Despite the fact that Nazario complied by
putting his empty hands out the window, both officers continued to escalate the
situation by aiming their guns at him and issuing contradicting commands.
As one officer ordered Nazario to
exit the vehicle, the other cop continued shouting at him to keep his hands
outside the window. In the video, the officers were clearly close enough to
Nazario’s vehicle to see the temporary license plates taped to the inside of
the Tahoe’s rear window.
“What’s going on?” Nazario, who was
wearing his military fatigues, kept asking them.
“What’s going on is your fixin’ to
ride the lightning, son,” Gutierrez threatened while switching to his Taser and
aiming it at Nazario’s face.
After the officers refused to
answer why Nazario was being detained, Gutierrez shot OC spray directly into
his face for not immediately getting on the ground during a routine traffic
stop. As Nazario exited the vehicle, the officers reportedly kicked him in the
back of the legs and repeatedly struck him on the ground.
Nazario kept telling the officers
that his dog was in the vehicle and choking due to the OC spray. When asked if
Nazario had a gun in the vehicle, he confirmed the location of his firearm
within the Tahoe. The officers immediately ran the serial number but discovered
that it was legally registered to Nazario.
According to Nazario’s complaint,
the officers attempted to extort his silence in exchange for not initiating an
illegal prosecution. After releasing Nazario without charges, the officers
allegedly filed false reports accusing the Army Lieutenant of wantonly
disregarding the lights and siren of Crocker’s patrol car, refusing to put his
hands outside the vehicle window, not displaying his temporary license plates,
and other fabrications.
“These cameras captured footage of
behavior consistent with a disgusting nationwide trend of law enforcement
officers, who, believing they can operate with complete impunity, engage in
unprofessional, discourteous, racially biased, dangerous and sometimes deadly
abuses of authority,” the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, the
incident was recorded on at least three separate cameras. Crocker and Guiterrez
recorded footage on their police body cameras, while Nazario used his cellphone
to record the violent encounter.
Police officials have confirmed
that both officers continue to work for the department.
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