Months after police killed George Floyd on a busy street in Minneapolis, Army Lt. Caron Nazario had a dangerous encounter with police in rural Virginia.
Nazario, who is Black and Latino, survived. But the officers’ overreaction to Nazario for driving a new SUV with temporary license plates was eerily similar to the way officers initially responded to Floyd for buying a pack of cigarettes with a fake $20 bill.
Nazario, still dressed in his Army fatigues, was driving home from an Army drill weekend last December when police officers in Windsor, Virginia, pulled him over, doused him with pepper spray, pushed him to the ground and continuously berated him.
Rather than attempt to de-escalate the situation and ensure everyone’s safety, the officers made it worse.
Details of Nazario’s encounter are documented in police camera video, and a lawsuit filed this month against the small police department seeking $1 million in damages for illegally searching his car, using excessive force and violating his First Amendment rights.