Tanner Holt, a Knoxville cop who was knocked out after he allegedly made racist comments to a Black man during a wedding they both attended, has resigned. Holt quit last week during an internal affairs investigation into his behavior, Know News reports.
The Knoxville Police Department started an investigation after Holt was accused of making racist remarks in a parking lot after a wedding. The Black man at whom he directed insults warned him to stop. When Holt didn’t, dude knocked him out. The man later told Knox News that he and Holt served in the Marines together. A police report on the incident has Holt allegedly telling the man that he “didn’t know they let Black people in the reception hall.”
As The Root previously reported, Holt was taken off of patrol since the incident.
Here is more from Knox News:
No charges were ever filed in the case. Holt spent time in the hospital after injuring himself in a fall after the punch. He returned to work when he was cleared for duty and was reassigned from patrol while the investigation was conducted, according to a police spokesperson. The investigation will be closed soon.
Holt could not be reached for comment.
The report noted that “all witnesses stated that Holt was very intoxicated when this incident occurred.” Officers could not speak to Holt at the time, the report noted, because he was unconscious.
A Knoxville Police Department policy says officers can’t behave in an “immoral, indecent, lewd or disorderly manner,” even when they’re not in uniform. The comments and Holt’s reported public drunkenness could both violate the department’s general code of conduct policy. A violation of the policy is a class A violation, the highest at KPD, and could have resulted in his termination.
Well, Holt is no longer a cop at KPD. Unfortunately, there is a great chance that he can go a few towns over and be a cop elsewhere. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.