Florida police officer resigns after video showed him using racial slur

A Florida police officer has lost his job he was caught on cell phone video using a racial slur on Monday.

Probationary Officer Michael Naples resigned from the St. Petersburg Police Department on Tuesday after his supervisors viewed video of him using the n-word during an exchange with a man on Monday night.

“I’m still hurt,” Levonte Daniels, the target of Naples racial slur, told the Tampa Bay Times. “He might have quit, but I still have a 5-year-old daughter who I have to explain this to. You just made me feel like the scum of the earth.”

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Naples, who had been on the job less than a year, was called to investigate a dispute between Daniels and a pizza delivery person, according to the local publication. Police said Daniels struck the pizza delivery driver’s car with a fire extinguisher.

Daniels denied the allegation and told the paper the confrontation began after the driver threw change at his face. He said the extinguisher hitting the car happened by accident, not because he swung at the vehicle.

Naples issued Daniels a referral to a pre-trial diversion program on a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief. The program allows offenders to avoid arrest and court if they admit to the crime.

“This situation has everything to do with another black man being railroaded into a system by being forced to take charges or go to jail,” Daniels told the newspaper.

The driver was not cited.

Daniels and Naples began to argue as the officer was leaving.

At that point, Naples can be heard in the video directing the racial slur towards Daniels. 

“I’m not going to repeat that because it’s not worth repeating,” Chief of Police Tony Holloway said during a press conference on Tuesday, according to the paper.

“He just said, ‘I was wrong. I got caught up in the moment,’ ” Holloway said, adding that if Naples didn’t resign, he would have been fired.