Two Florida deputies faced suspension without pay after arresting a 61-year-old legally blind man who was carrying a cane they mistook for a gun.
Jayme Gohde and her supervisor, Randy Harrison, were also reprimanded. Harrison will be denied raises or promotions for two years and both will be required to take remedial training about civil rights.
According to an arrest report, Gohde stopped James Hodges, of Lake City, a town west of Jacksonville, in the early morning of 31 October, after she saw him enter a crosswalk as a traffic-control device indicated not to do so.
The morning was foggy and overcast and drivers were using headlights, the report said. The report also said Hodges appeared to be carrying a “silver (chrome) pistol with a white grip in his back right pocket”.
The implement was later confirmed as a “navigational aid” – but not before Hodges was arrested and charged with resisting an officer.
During an encounter captured on body-camera footage, Gohde asked Hodges what was in his pocket. Hodges explained. He also asked: “What’s the problem? Are you a tyrant?”
Gohde responded that she was, actually, and asked for his name and date of birth, which he refused to give.
“Do you want me to put you in handcuffs right now?” the officer asked.
In a video statement released on Tuesday by the Columbia county sheriff’s office, Sheriff Mark Hunter said the two officers had been found to have made “policy violations”.
Hunter said he did not believe the officers were “guided by ill-intent but rather by frustration and failure to rely on their training”. That said, he said their conduct was “unacceptable”.
“As sheriff, I take full responsibility for this event and want to extend my sincere apologies to Mr Hodges for the actions of my deputies,” Hunter said.
Hodges told WTLV of Jacksonville, an NBC affiliate, that support he has received from the public over the incident “makes my chest swell up, not in a proud way, but in a very appreciative way”.
