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A Black Army officer held at gunpoint during traffic stop was afraid to get out of his car. ‘You should be,’ police said.

By Timothy Bella
April 10, 2021 at 4:25 p.m. EDT

Caron Nazario had his arms raised in fear from the window of his newly purchased SUV when two police officers held the Army second lieutenant at gunpoint during a traffic stop in Windsor, Va. ... Nazario was confused as to why police were yelling for him to exit the car last December for not having a permanent rear license plate, according to a federal lawsuit filed this month.

When Nazario told police on Dec. 5, 2020, that he was “honestly afraid to get out” of the car, the officer replied, “Yeah, you should be!” ... From there, body-cam footage shows police pepper-spraying, striking and handcuffing the 27-year-old, and using a slang term suggesting that he would face execution, the complaint says. The lawsuit claims police also threatened to end Nazario’s military career if he spoke out about the incident. ... “I’m serving this country, and this is how I’m treated?” said Nazario, according to body-cam video.

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Nazario, who is Black and Latino, filed a lawsuit this month against Windsor officers Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker alleging excessive force that the lieutenant says was due to racial profiling. The federal lawsuit obtained by The Washington Post, which was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia on April 2, is seeking at least $1 million in damages and for the court to rule that Gutierrez and Crocker violated his constitutional rights, specifically the Fourth Amendment.

“Short of people getting murdered, it’s the most egregious conduct I’ve seen on film by police,” Jonathan Arthur, Nazario’s attorney, said to The Post. ... Neither Windsor Police Chief Rodney Riddle nor Mayor Glyn Willis immediately returned requests for comment Saturday. A town manager told the Virginian Pilot that Gutierrez and Crocker still work for the police department.

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In an interview Saturday, Arthur, Nazario’s attorney, said that his client seeking at least $1 million in damages is meant to send a message “to officers that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.” Since the encounter with police, Nazario, a graduate of Virginia State University, has had recurring nightmares and gets “freaked out” whenever he sees law enforcement, Arthur said. ... “It just blows my mind that two officers thought they could get away with it,” Arthur said. “He did everything right.”

Alex Horton contributed to this report.

Timothy Bella
Timothy Bella is the deputy editor of Morning Mix. His work has appeared in outlets such as Esquire, the Atlantic, New York magazine and the Undefeated. Follow https://twitter.com/TimBella

MJP1551 5 minutes ago
traffic stops are not custodial arrests. Until they are. Cops have a free hand in this situation- all he did was give a couple ignorant uneducated rednecks cops, with all their cop gear, an excuse to use their cop gear and beat him down.

kdog_wnc BEAT ARMY 2 minutes ago
They don't have a free hand. One is detained at the moment one stops. Pennsylvania v. Mimms.

Pennsylvania v. Mimms

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Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106 (1977), is a United States Supreme Court criminal law decision holding that a police officer ordering a person out of a car following a traffic stop and conducting a pat-down to check for weapons did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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