Police Chief Rodney D. Riddle said he does not believe that the Black and Latino army lieutenant who was pepper-sprayed by officers in his department last year during a traffic stop is owed an official apology.
“I’m gonna own what we did,” Riddle said. “My guys missed opportunities to verbally de-escalate that thing and change that outcome.”
Last year two Windsor police officers, Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker, drew their guns and ordered Lt. Caron Nazario out of his vehicle after he was stopped for allegedly not having a rear license tag. They pepper-sprayed Nazario before realizing his license tag taped to the rear window of the new car.Â
They told Nazario to keep quiet about the incident or could be facing more charges.
Not only did the chief said Nazario is not deserving of an apology, he blamed him for the incident, saying he wished the driver “would have complied a whole lot earlier.”
In response, Lt. Nazario’s legal team said Windsor Police Department Chief Rodney D. Riddle “continues a false narrative” of the case and blaming their client for initiating it. They said the video of the stop “shows otherwise” that their client was nothing but compliant.
The incident is now the subject of a $1 million lawsuit against the officers involved, one of whom was fired earlier this week after an internal investigation.