March 25, 2023
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
A Philadelphia police officer is on restricted duty for allegedly using a racial slur during an attempted arrest. The incident was caught on camera and posted on the Instagram account "phillyspotnews."
UPDATE (3/29): The Philadelphia police officer did not use racial slur during an arrest attempt, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Tuesday.
A review of body cam footage cleared the cop. The officer who was placed on restricted duty returned to full duty immediately.
A Philadelphia police officer is being investigated after a social media video allegedly shows the cop saying a racial slur while attempting to arrest someone.
Commisioner Danielle Outlaw has placed the cop suspected of using the slur on restrictive duty, she said Friday.
"We are aware of the recent video on social media that depicts a Philly Police officer conducting a car stop of an individual who was subsequently found to have a handgun. The conduct displayed by the officers is highly concerning, and I have ordered an Internal Affairs Investigation into the incident. All of the officers have been identified, and the primary officer has been placed on restricted duty pending the outcome of the investigation." Outlaw tweeted.
It is unclear who is saying the slur, but a video posted on the Instagram account "phillyspotnews" shows officers in Germantown surrounding a vehicle, one with a gun drawn on the driver's side and two others with flashlights. Someone is yelling at another person in the SUV to open the door.
You can hear somebody yell, "open the f****** door, open the door, you've got a gun on you [racial slur], its right there in your f****** waist [racial slur]."
After that, someone in the background of the video starts screaming at the cop for using the slur, shouting a racial slur at the cop, who is white, and calling him racist.
As the video continues, one of the officers exchanges a gun for a baton and begins to break open the driver's side front window, still trying to get the door open, before the driver attempts to drive off, ramming into a parked police car to the left.
The suspect, who had a gun, was arrested, police confirmed.
There is body cam footage of the incident that police officers are reviewing. City Councilmember Cindy Bass and State Senators Art Haywood and Shariff Street, who all represent areas of Germantown, met with police to see the footage, a spokesperson for Street said.
"The fact that the officer in question is a 16-year police veteran is even more concerning, as he repeatedly failed to embody the discipline and leadership such status should bring," a joint statement from the three public officials said.
