Chattanooga Police Department Officer Alex Olson will be suspended for 30 days without pay for firing his weapon at a moving vehicle in October of last year.
On Wednesday, police Chief Fred Fletcher sustained a finding of “improper use of force — discharge of a firearm,” giving Olson the maximum suspension allowed by Chattanooga city code.
In a letter hand-delivered to Olson and distributed to media, Fletcher said the policy violation was sustained because he fired the shots after the other driver crashed into his patrol car and was leaving the scene.
“I do not believe you were facing an imminent threat to your life or another person at the time you used deadly force by firing at a fleeing vehicle,” Fletcher writes. “It is my decision that at the point when deadly force was used, you were outside the adopted Use of Force Policy.”
