Wilmington Police Department in North Carolina has fired three veteran police officers who made racist comments and discussed “slaughtering” and wiping Black people off the map in conversations recorded on an in-car camera.
Newly appointed police Chief Donny Williams announced the dismissals of Cpl. Jesse Moore and officers James Gilmore and Kevin Piner during a news conference Wednesday.
Their conversations featured racist slurs, criticism of Black officers and the Black Lives Matter movement, and talk of a civil war, Williams said, describing the exchanges as “brutally offensive.” The chief said the firings were “extremely necessary.”
A police supervisor found the footage during a routine inspection, Williams said.
“There are certain behaviors that one must have in order to be a police officer and these three officers have demonstrated that they do not possess it,” said the police chief. He added that he was “shocked, saddened and disgusted.”
“Please don’t judge our officers based on the conduct of a few,” he said.
Williams also explained the department’s unusual step of releasing a summary of the investigation.
“Because it is the right thing to do,” he said, calling it an exceptional case that was “essential to maintain public confidence in the administration of the City and the Police Department.”