Cop resigns after pulling gun on black college student picking up trash outside dorm
A white police officer who pulled out his gun during a heated confrontation with a black college student picking up trash outside his Colorado dorm is resigning — and will continue to collect his paycheck for the next eight months, city officials said.
The officer, John Smyly, was identified Thursday as the 14-year department veteran seen in a 16-minute video posted to YouTube after confronting Zayd Atkinson outside a Naropa University dorm in Boulder on March 1, the Boulder Daily Camera reports.
Smyly, who had been on paid leave since the tense encounter, was found in violation of two department policies but resigned his post before the end of the city’s disciplinary process.
As part of an agreement, he’ll remain an employee through February and earn roughly $69,000 in salary for unused holiday and sick time, officials said.
“The exchange between Officer Smyly and Mr. Atkinson does not represent the professionalism of the Boulder Police Department nor the community Boulder desires to be,” City Attorney Tom Carr said in a statement to the newspaper. “While we have no proof racial bias was a motivating factor, the internal affairs investigation resulted in sustained violations of police policies.”
Smyly violated police authority and public trust and conduct, according to the review process that would’ve likely ended in his suspension or termination had he not already resigned from the department, police told the newspaper.
Smyly was conducting extra patrols due to recent crime in the area when he encountered Atkinson with an “unknown object in his left hand,” according to a summary of the probe released by Boulder police Chief Greg Testa.
Video shows Smyly approaching Atkinson in a partially enclosed patio area behind a “private property sign,” prompting the officer to ask if the man had a right to be there. Atkinson, who was holding a trash picker at the time, then told Smyly that he both lived and worked there before giving the officer his ID card.
Atkinson then started to walk away and continue picking up trash after Smyly asked for his address and date of birth, leading Smyly to radio for help. Atkinson then raised his voice, causing the officer to become “threatened by the trash grabber,” according to the report.
“You’re probably going to get tased in a second, because you have a weapon,” Smyly told Atkinson before brandishing his handgun.
Smyly later said he believed his stun gun would be ineffective in subduing Atkinson because of the heavy coat he was wearing at the time, according to the report.
Atkinson asked for Smyly’s supervisor several times during the footage and a total of eight officers and a sergeant responded to the scene. But none of those officers, including Smyly, pointed their weapons at Atkinson, the report found.
“The subject officer should have ended his contact with Mr. Atkinson as soon as Mr. Atkinson provided his name, address and a brief explanation of what he was doing,” the report read.
Investigators also determined that a person overheard on the footage telling Atkinson that he was likely racially profiled was a Naropa employee — and not one of the responding officers.
Atkinson’s attorney, meanwhile, said he was upset that Smyly is allowed to stay on the city’s payroll for more than eight months.
“If you or I did what Officer Smyly did to Zayd Atkinson, not only would we be immediately fired, we would be criminally prosecuted,” attorney Siddhartha Rathod told the newspaper. “The citizens of Boulder should be outraged that Boulder either doesn’t have the ability or the will to fire this officer and root out discrimination from this police department.”
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Boulder Police Dept