In what is probably the last week of testimony in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd, two officers in Windsor, Va., are about to become famous.
On April 2, Army 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario filed suit in federal court against Officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker for a Dec. 5 traffic stop that escalated into a violent confrontation over an alleged missing license plate.
Lt. Nazario, a 27-year-old health services administration officer for the Virginia National Guard, was not violating any laws when he was pulled over in his brand new black Chevy Tahoe. His temporary plate was clearly visible in the police videos that documented the stop, but both cops somehow missed it in the back window.
Dressed in full Army fatigues, Lt. Nazario, who is both Black and Latino, lowered the tinted window and asked why he was being stopped. This made him even more suspect to the two officers who had their guns trained on him from the moment he pulled into the gas station from the highway.
Officers Gutierrez and Crocker demanded Lt. Nazario get out of the SUV. Noticing how amped up the officers were, Lt. Nazario confessed that he was “honestly afraid to get out of the car.”
“Yeah, you should be,” Officer Gutierrez said continuing his verbal badgering of the Army officer. In response to Lt. Nazario’s repeated plea that they tell him what he had done to warrant guns being pulled on him, Officer Gutierrez answered, “You’re fixin’ to ride the lightning, son,” which is regional slang for: get ready to be electrocuted, boy!
Regardless of what the now fired officer meant by the statement, it was a wildly inappropriate thing to say to a terrified citizen, even someone in the military who is used to contemplating his mortality on a regular basis.
The entire exchange, including the pepper-spraying of Lt. Nazario multiple times, his calm but increasingly concerned appeals for an explanation, the escalating violence on the part of the cops and their humiliating treatment of a man serving in the military was captured on police body cameras and the soldier’s cellphone and uploaded to social media over the weekend to the outrage of millions.
Lt. Nazario is now suing the officers for $1 million for violating his constitutional rights. He also maintains in his lawsuit that the officers racially profiled him and that their use of excessive force flowed from that animus.
It’s hard to argue with a charge of assault and battery when you look at the footage and try to recall a video of a similar incident involving a white motorist anywhere in America. It just doesn’t happen, especially in small “speed-trap” towns like Windsor, Va.
The fact that Lt. Nazario’s brand-new SUV has tinted windows is not a lawful pretext to pull a driver over. He was driving below the speed limit and his temporary tag was visible in the back window had either officer truly bothered to look carefully.
In other words, Caron Nazario had done nothing to deserve being stopped that evening — Zero! Nada! Zilch! None! — but Officer Gutierrez threatened to manufacture a bogus obstruction of justice charge not backed up by video evidence if the handcuffed soldier, blind from pepper spray and simmering resentment, didn’t “chill” and let the whole thing go.
It’s terrifying to realize that at any point had the officers shot and killed Lt. Nazario over NOTHING! they would’ve found a way to rationalize it by alleging just enough imaginary threats and moving violations to give at least one juror the “reasonable doubt” needed to hang a jury.
Still, after several knee strikes, abusive language and threats for not immediately obeying contradictory commands captured on video, both officers knew they had bitten off more than they could chew in this post-George Floyd era.
Because a temporary license plate was affixed to the SUV’s back window where it was supposed to be, they understood that they had nothing to charge Lt. Nazario with that wouldn’t be laughed out of court. When an ambulance and Windsor’s police chief arrived, that’s when Officer Gutierrez sought in his own warped way to de-escalate the situation and “reason” with Lt. Nazario.
Naturally, he blamed Lt. Nazario for not complying fast enough, but conceded that driving to a well-lit place during a police stop was something cautious citizens did, especially “minorities” who feel threatened by police officers who issue folksy threats to use “lightning” on them. Police stops of Black motorists are never routine as long as a cop feels even an iota of fear.
“I get it, the media spewing [about] race relations between law enforcement and minorities. I get it,” the officer said as a handcuffed Lt. Nazario blinked back tears from having been pepper-sprayed minutes earlier. It must have been especially galling being condescended to by someone who was likely to lose his job as a result of his actions that day.
Officer Gutierrez suddenly tried to play “good cop” to the “bad cop” he had been by giving Lt. Nazario an easy way out. He “graciously” offered not to bring charges against the wronged motorist if he would also drop the matter, but that going either way “wouldn’t change [Gutierrez’s] life” in the least. Implied in that offer was a promise of damage an arrest and possible conviction would bring to Lt. Nazario’s military career.
In the police report that was riddled with lies and exaggerations about the incident, Officer Gutierrez went all-out characterizing himself as the “good guy” in what could have easily turned into another unjustified killing of a Black citizen minding his own business: “Being a military veteran, I did not want to see his career ruined over one erroneous decision,” the former officer wrote without an ounce of self-awareness.
At some point, and we don’t know when, there was an internal investigation and Officer Gutierrez was fired. There is no mention of the firing in Lt. Nazario’s lawsuit, so it isn’t likely his lawyer even knew that it happened at the time of the filing. It’s more likely that the firing took place after the suit was filed, but Windsor’s police chief wasn’t answering questions about it or the lawsuit over the weekend after the video went public.
When Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam weighed in on Twitter on Sunday expressing his disgust and dismay over the conduct of the officers, it was only a matter of time before heads rolled. He ordered a state investigation and also invited Lt. Nazario to meet with him. The question now becomes: Why did it take four months to see any justice done in this case and why does the cop who initiated the “high risk stop” by erroneously calling in a missing plate when he had tags still have a job after his colleague was fired? They were both violent and both issued threats during the stop.
Why hasn’t Windsor come clean about an obvious case of police abuse, intimidation and violence it has known about since early December? Did Windsor police really think that a Black Latino man threatened with “lightning” would simply drop it knowing that it could happen again to him or one of his brethren in uniform?
The cops desperately wanted obedience from an American soldier at the expense of justice that night. The soldier wanted justice, but also respect that every citizen has the right to expect even during an encounter with the police.
So far, the country and the law are on Lt. Nazario’s side. That’s a long overdue sign of progress in post-George Floyd America.
Tony Norman: tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631. Twitter @Tony_NormanPG.
First Published: April 13, 2021, 4:00 a.m.
Updated: April 13, 2021, 8:45 a.m.
