Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced on Monday that he has requested a long list of information from the Windsor Police Department (WDP) after a video from a traffic stop in December 2020 went viral. This is a step towards a potential investigation of the incident, something that many elected officials and activists have been calling the attorney general to do.
In the video, two Windsor police officers approached Army 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario’s car after pulling him over on Route 460. After shouting conflicting orders at him, Nazario, dressed in his army fatigues, informed the officers who had their guns drawn, that he was afraid to get out of the vehicle. One of the officers then responded with, “Yeah, you should be.”
The officer then proceeded to hit Nazario with pepper spray multiple times before they forcefully detained him. Nazario was eventually released with no charges that night.
The reason the footage of the encounter from December of last year was made public now is due to Nazario’s lawsuit against the police department.
It is unclear when it happened, but the Windsor Police Department announced Sunday that one of the officers involved in the encounter, Joe Gutierrez, has been fired. Just a few days earlier, the town manager told reporters that both officers involved in the incident were still employed.
Governor Ralph Northam has directed the Virginia State Police to investigate the incident — but state legislators have been calling for more from Herring, the top law enforcement official in the commonwealth, as the video continued to be shared nationally. Del. Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) responded after Herring tweeted on Saturday that his office was monitoring the incident. “Meanwhile, [the] most powerful law enforcement person in the state is ‘monitoring’ the incident,” Scott tweeted. “You gotta stop “monitoring” (read: doing nothing) these incidents and do something.”
The Virginia NAACP held a press conference Monday in Windsor to reiterate their calls for transparency. “This is about decency, justice, and frankly, accountability,” Da’Quan Love, the executive director of the Virginia NAACP said while standing beside Route 460 Monday evening. “Imagine what happens when the body cameras are off … enough is enough.”
Valerie Butler, the president of the Isle of Wright NAACP Branch listed several demands during the press conference. In addition to the termination of the second officer involved in the incident, Butler called for transparency from Windsor and their police department — this includes the details around their investigation of Gutierrez that resulted in his termination.
Additionally, Butler said that she appreciates Governor Northam’s efforts to have the Virginia State Police investigate the incident, but after talking to people in her community, she believes the best way to move forward would be to have a completely independent investigation take place where a police agency is not involved.
Butler then called for the General Assembly to authorize Attorney General Herring to launch a full investigation into the incident.
A few minutes prior to the press conference on Monday, Herring’s office announced that they sent a letter to the Windsor Police Chief Rodney Riddle with a list of documents they want to review.
“The Office of the Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights has the authority to inquire into and investigate incidents that may constitute an unlawful pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by laws of the United States and the Commonwealth,” the letter reads.
In all, Herring’s Office of Civil Rights is requesting:
- Any records or other documentation the Windsor Police Department (WPD) has created regarding the incident that occurred between the officers and 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario on December 5, 2020
- Personnel records for the two WPD officers – Officer Joe Gutierrez and Officer Daniel Crocker – involved in the December 5, 2020 traffic stop
- WPD policies related to use of force
- WPD policies related to traffic stops
- WPD policies related to de-escalation and engaging with members of the public
- WPD training programs and/or materials for the last ten years related to any of the aforementioned policies
- Complaints received by the WPD related to use of force for the last 10 years
- Complaints received by the WPD related to traffic stops for the last 10 years, including, but not limited to stops where a person was detained
- Complaints received by the WPD for the last 10 years related to treatment on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin
Herring has not indicated what the intention of collecting these documents is exactly, but in an interview on CNN Monday night, he fell short of committing to fully investigating the incident. He called the actions of the officers that night appalling and committed to working to find out if there is a pattern of related incidents within WPD.
“Nothing that I saw on the video justified the actions that the officers took,” Herring said on CNN. “Under no reasonable use of force policies would any of this conduct be permissible.”
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