Florida police officers laughed and celebrated by shooting protesters with rubber bullets during a George Floyd demonstration in May, recently released body camera images show.
“Hit him, little boy,” Detective Zachary Baro, head of a Fort Lauderdale Police Department SWAT team unit, can be heard in the video, which was obtained by the Miami Herald.
A protester had just thrown a can of tear gas at a line of police officers, leading them to open fire with the shells, when the policemen began to laugh and boast.
“Did you see me for those mothers?” says one of the officers.
“I got the first one,” another replied with a laugh.
Officers believed Baro’s body camera was turned off at the time, according to a conversation captured by the camera. In it, Officer Jamie Chatman asked Baro if his body camera was turned off, to which he wrongly replied that he was in “standby” mode and was not recording.
The two officers began joking about the people who had fired the rubber bullets.
On Thursday, Fort Lauderdale city manager Chris Lagerbloom said he was “concerned about what I saw” in the video, according to CBS Miami.
“While I am a strong advocate of the hard work of our police force, I would not want the actions of a select few to taint the public’s perception of the Department’s dedication and professionalism as a whole,” Lagerbloom said in a statement.
“I can understand the intensity of the moment captured in the body camera images since the officers were clearly under attack … The language the officers used and the sentiment expressed is not consistent with what the public expects of our police force. “
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department said it is “in the process of conducting a thorough review” of the images.
“Although the language is extreme and offensive to some, our officers were dealing with the chaos of a developing situation,” said a police statement.
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