Columbia police officer fired after using ‘n-word’ in Five Points confrontation
A Columbia police officer has been fired after using a racial slur on video.
The officer, Sgt. Chad Walker, was captured on video in a confrontation with several people outside a Five Points bar on Saturday night, where he can be heard using the “n-word” at least twice.
Walker, a 14-year veteran of the Columbia Police Department, had been previously suspended while the department investigated the incident.
“We will continue to hold each other to the professional, ethical, and moral standards expected by our citizens and place the highest priority on maintaining public trust,” Police Chief Skip Holbrook said in a press release announcing the firing. “As I’ve stated before, when setbacks occur and mistakes are made, we must be willing to acknowledge them, fix them, learn from them, and continue to move forward together.”
Walker, a white officer, got into a heated confrontation with multiple people outside of Bar None on Harden Street on Saturday night. Walker had been enforcing a statewide order requiring bars to stop serving alcohol at 11 p.m. when a patron allegedly directed the slur at him.
“I never called anybody a derogatory word. I was actually called a derogatory word,” Walker can be heard saying on the video as multiple people confront him outside the bar.
Video of the incident prompted protests outside Columbia police headquarters on Sunday calling for the officer to quit.
Columbia police’s own Twitter account responded to video of the incident Sunday morning, saying “The officer’s behavior is inexcusable and completely inconsistent with what the Columbia Police Department and citizens expect from officers.”
In announcing Walker’s suspension, Holbrook cited his “repetition of the racial slur and failure to deescalate the situation.”
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin praised the suspension on Sunday. “We are thankful to responsible citizens for alerting us to unacceptable officer actions, & to Chief Skip Holbrook for his swift, decisive response,” he said.
The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between Black communities and law enforcement after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a week ago. Blake was shot seven times in the back after he broke away from a confrontation with police officers and tried to get into his car.
Blake’s shooting and other police killings of Black people have led to sustained protests this summer. Locally, protests have also focused on Joshua Ruffin, a 17-year-old shot and killed by Columbia police in April.
The officer who shot Ruffin was not charged following an investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, whose findings were reviewed by 5th Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 8:17 PM.
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