Retired cop recommends disciplinary action against gun-toting officer

A former senior member of the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda has suggested that disciplinary action should be taken against a police officer who was manhandling a man while wielding a gun.
A video of the police officer, who was holding the man by his shirt and demanding that the man fully clothe himself, surfaced on WhatsApp and other social media platforms last week. The police have since launched an investigation into the matter.
Nuffield Burnette, retired assistant commissioner of police, said while the video did not have a violent outcome he was concerned about the matter.
“I was so concerned about that thing that I sent it to the Commissioner of Police and I expect to see some disciplinary action being brought against that officer. Not because somebody did not get killed, somebody could have gotten killed … there was the potential for persons to get killed,” Burnette said during Sunday’s Big Issues Programme.
Community Activist Khalid Shabazz, who was also a guest on the programme, made mention of the video indicating that
the officer in question could have used a different method to get the civilian to comply.
“He [the police officer] had a gun in his hand.
The man could have easily hit him a kind of way and his [the police officer] hand could have slipped and
triggered the gun. Or the man could have overpowered the officer shooting him in the process. I just thought it was a bit ridiculous, but thank God it did not turn out any other way,” Shabazz said.
Burnette later added that small matters like this should be thoroughly investigated as it could lead to bigger and more serious incidents.
Both men were discussing community safety in light of the discovery of two men being killed mere days apart in St. John’s last week.