A St. Petersburg, Fla., police officer has resigned hours after being captured on cellphone video using a racial slur while responding to a dispute.
Probationary Officer Michael Naples, who had only been sworn in last July, was seen on video calling a black man who was recording his encounter with police a “piece-of-shit nigger.”
The incident unfolded Monday night when Naples responded to a call involving a dispute between a pizza-delivery person and a customer, ABC Action News reports.
That customer, Levonte Daniels, said that the pizza-delivery driver, who was white, tried to run him over. In response, apparently trying to protect himself, Daniels was accused of striking the delivery driver’s vehicle with a fire extinguisher.
Daniels was given a notice of referral for criminal mischief. He attempted to explain his side of the story, he said, but since the driver and the cop were both white, he didn’t think the officer believed him or was paying attention.
“Once I told him ‘Well, you’re trying to railroad me,’ he said, ‘Well, you’re a piece of shit,” Daniels told Action News.
Daniels told the officer that he was “a piece of shit, too,” to which he said the officer then responded, “Well, you’re a piece-of-shit nigger.”
“It hurt, literally. It really hurt,” Daniels told Bay News 9 of the incident. “It’s not the first time I’ve been called that word. So it didn’t hurt because I was called that word. It hurt because that was a police officer.”
After the video was revealed, Naples was still somehow given the option to resign or to be fired ... of course, he resigned.
“We will not tolerate any officers using any type of racial slurs, or swearing at a scene, using profanity,” Police Chief Anthony Holloway said.
Naples, according to Holloway, has apologized for his use of profanity and the slur.