A Florida police officer was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly pulled his gun and threatened to shoot an unarmed Black man who wouldn’t identify himself, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.
According to the report, sergeant Janak Amin of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office “pointed his gun at the unidentified man who had left DACCO Behavioral Health Center, a mental health facility, after he was inadvertently taken there from an HCSO detention center.”
The sheriff’s office said in a statement that The man was taken into custody, but refused to give his name to officials. During the incident, police said, Amin pulled out his gun and “threatened the man’s life.”
“The individual in custody was not armed and made no aggressive actions toward any Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies,” police said.
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The report noted that “other police officers who responded to the call were able to ‘de-escalate’ the situation and identify the man.”
“There is no question, this incident is detestable and not representative of who we are as a law enforcement agency,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement.
The statement added: “The almost 4,000 men and women of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office are so very proud to serve and protect the community. When a member of our team breaks the oath they have taken and the law, it erodes the sacred trust we have with the community that we have worked so. hard to earn. As your Sheriff, I will always fight for and protect victims and peruse lawbreakers, even if it’s one of our own. I want to also commend the deputies who came forward to immediately came forward to report this most egregious act. While I know it was difficult to do so, this is the type of transparency we must have as a law enforcement agency, whose mission is to serve, protect and defend the community while preserving the rights and dignity of all.”
The officer, who had spent 21 years on the force, was released on bond Friday, according to The New York Daily News.
