Connecticut police department fires officer who warned he was ‘a little trigger-happy’ in video

A Connecticut police officer has been fired weeks after a viral video showed him warning a group of men he was “a little trigger-happy.”

The officer, Stephen Barone, was fired Wednesday, Hartford Police Chief David Rosado announced via Facebook.

“Our success as a police department depends on our relationship with the community we serve,” Rosado wrote. “This officer’s conduct does not reflect the values of our agency.”

In the Aug. 9 viral video, recorded by one of the men Barone approached, the officer can be heard telling the group of seven men not to “fight or run” because he could shoot.

{mosads}“If anybody wants to fight or run, I’m a little trigger happy guys, I’m not gonna lie,” Barone says in the video. The men in the group, whom Barone allegedly suspected of trespassing, were mostly black and Hispanic, according to the Hartford Courant.

Barone reportedly said during the internal review that he thought his conduct was “effective in maintaining control,” though he could have used a “better choice of words.”

Rosado wrote that his decision to fire Barone was not made “lightly,” and that he considered the findings of the department’s internal investigation into the incident.

“It’s clear to me that there’s no scenario in which Mr. Barone can return to his duties as a productive member of the Hartford Police Department,” Rosado wrote.

Barone was demoted from sergeant following the video and put on desk duty, taking a pay cut from $89,200 to $76,800, according to the Courant.