The nation's scrutiny has been trained on the police department of Windsor, Virginia ever since the release of last week's now-notorious bodycam video that showed as two cops held up Lieutenant Caron Nazario, a Black and Latino man, at a gas station.
Although the police officers, one of whom was later fired, only pulled Nazario for not having a visible rear license tag, they pointed a gun at Nazario, pepper sprayed him, pulled him from the car and forced him to the ground.
Despite a week-long wave of national backlash since the release of that footage, the Police Chief of Windsor, Virginia just said the department does not owe Nazario an apology for what happened that night, USA Today reported.
In a press conference held to address the incident, Windsor Police Department Chief Rodney D. Riddle only went as far as acknowledging that things could have gone better.
"I'm gonna own what we did."
"My guys missed opportunities to verbally de-escalate that thing and change that outcome."
But when a reporter asked Riddle if he'd be willing to apologize to Nazario, Riddle explained he didn't feel it was necessary.
He also stated he wished Nazario acted differently.
"There were things that led up to that traffic stop, there were certain actions that Mr. Nazario took that raised red flags for those officers based on their training."
"They may be dealing with something beyond an ordinary run-of-the-mill stop. Those officers initially reacted relatively well in my opinion."
"Lieutenant Nazario took certain actions that created where we got to."
Nazario's legal team, however, took the exact opposite approach to the situation.
They explained everything about the officers' conduct was dangerous and abusive.
"OC spray hurts. Being threatened with 'riding the lightning' hurts. Being told you should be afraid to follow police commands hurts."
Nazario's attorneys went on to put Riddle's comments in context.
"The Officers' decision not to communicate information to allay Lieutenant Nazario's reasonable fears of facing guns, despite Lieutenant Nazario's compliance, continued the one-sided escalation of this interaction."
"The chief continues a false narrative and victim-blaming, He claims Second Lieutenant Nazario did not comply. The video shows otherwise."
As for the response of people on Facebook who heard about the chief's comments, they were just as critical.
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Ruth Myers-Dunnum/Facebook
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Bob Pulver/Facebook
Jackie Costa/Facebook
Critics will be glad to know that with Nazario's lawsuit against the department coming down the pipe, the department may ultimately end up giving way more than an apology.
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