X

Virginia Opens Investigation Over Army Officer Who Was Pepper-Sprayed

The state attorney general requested records going back as far as a decade after two officers were involved in a traffic stop during which a Black U.S. Army lieutenant was pepper-sprayed.

The attorney general of Virginia said on Monday that he was investigating whether there was an “unlawful pattern or practice of conduct” at the Windsor Police Department after a uniformed Black U.S. Army medic was held at gunpoint and doused with pepper spray by its officers.

Two members of the Police Department conducted a traffic stop on Caron Nazario, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, in December, during which one of the officers, Joe Gutierrez, threatened Lieutenant Nazario before dousing him with pepper spray and pushing him to the ground, according to body camera footage of the episode.

Mr. Gutierrez’s actions were “appalling” and “dangerous,” Mark Herring, the attorney general, said in an interview on CNN on Monday night. Continue reading.

Categories: National Issues
Data and Research Manager: