UPDATE: A Columbia, South Carolina police officer has been fired after a video was posted to social media showing the cop saying “N*****” multiple times during a heated incident at Five Points.
In the video, the officer said that a black man called him a “N*****.”
Here’s the video..
When Columbia police officers responded to the Five Points area Saturday night around 11 p.m. at Bar None, they “found several violations of the Governor’s Executive Order to stop the service and consumption of alcohol.”
“While Sgt. Chad Walker, a 14-year veteran with CPD, communicated the order with patrons and employees, a male is heard calling him a racial slur while leaving the establishment,” Columbia police said in a press release Sunday morning.
There was a heated exchange between Walker and the patrons (as shown on the video) in which Walker said N***** multiple times in reference to what he said he was called.
“As a recognized 21st Century Policing agency, CPD sincerely apologizes for the inappropriate, disrespectful words, behavior and actions of Sgt. Walker,” the Columbia Police said in a news release.
The officer was initially suspended, CPD officials announced Sunday.
Columbia Police Department officials conducted an investigation into the incident and presented those findings before a review board Monday afternoon.
“The Board reviewed the investigative findings presented by the officer’s chain of command which included a review of video. After hearing the findings, the Board unanimously sustained violations of Unsatisfactory Performance and Courtesy, ” the release said.
You can see CPD’s Policy and Procedures here.
“The Department’s discipline philosophy takes into consideration the degree of harm caused by the violation(s), the employee’s experience, intentional/unintentional errors, and the employee’s past record,” the release said. “Careful consideration is given to all applicable factors in the disciplinary review process and every effort is made to determine consequences that consistently and fairly fit the specific incident.”
As a result of the findings, officials decided to fire Walker.
“We will continue to hold each other to the professional, ethical, and moral standards expected by our citizens and place the highest priority on maintaining public trust,” Chief W. H. “Skip” Holbrook said. “As I’ve stated before, when setbacks occur and mistakes are made, we must be willing to acknowledge them, fix them, learn from them, and continue to move forward together.”
Here’s the second half of the video…
“After reviewing the video from last night in Five Points, it is evident the actions of Sgt. Walker were a clear failure to fulfill the expectations and standards of our Department,” Chief W. H. “Skip” Holbrook said Sunday. “The repetition of the racial slur and failure to deescalate the situation were inexcusable. Our officers are trained to serve as leaders and to deescalate confrontations of potentially volatile situations.”
“Although I am embarrassed and disappointed in the Sergeant’s actions, I was encouraged to see a junior officer intervene and remove Walker from the situation, potentially stopping further escalation.”
You can read the full CPD news release here…
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