Black Army Lt. Held at Gunpoint and Pepper Sprayed During Traffic Stop
Black Lives Matter Army Lt. Held at Gunpoint and Repeatedly Pepper Sprayed
A U.S. Army Lieutenant was repeatedly pepper sprayed and physically attacked by a cop ... all over the fact he didn't have a rear license plate.
Lt. Caron Nazario, who is Black and Latino, was driving his Chevy Tahoe in Windsor, Virginia when cops noticed he didn't have plates. You can see from the bodycam, the Chevy appears to be new and there's a registration attached to the window. Once cops lit him up, he drove a little under a mile before pulling into a well-lit gas station.
It's hard to watch. The cop with the bodycam is unrelenting ... screaming at Nazario to get out of his SUV. At one point the Lieutenant says, "I'm honestly afraid to get out." The cop barks back, "You should be!"
Nazario has his hands up in the air the whole time, but the cop is increasingly frustrated and then amps things up, pepper-spraying Nazario 4 times. His dog was in the back choking from the pepper spray.
Nazario is pulled out of the SUV and is sobbing as he's ordered to the ground and cuffed. He claims one of the cops told him if he complained, they'd throw the book at him with all sorts of charges -- obstruction of justice, eluding police, assault on a cop, etc.
The incident went down December 5, but the bodycam video was just released. Nazario has filed a lawsuit alleging a violation of his Constitutional rights.
It's interesting ... the younger cop who is watching as the other officer is barking orders seems uneasy, but ultimately does what his superior tells him to do.
