Four Mesa police officers and a lieutenant are the subject of separate internal investigations, one of which involves an officer who is accused of flushing a 4-inch stillborn fetus down a motel-room toilet and one of which involves improper use of force against a handcuffed prisoner, the Arizona Republic reports.
"These situations are very troubling to me, because they tarnish the police department," Mesa Police Chief George Gascón said in a news conference Wednesday.
Gascon described how officers responded to a Motel 6, after the hotel manager called 911 to report a man asking for towels because his girlfriend was miscarrying her 12- to 14-week fetus.
The three officers who responded to the scene asked for a supervisor, a request that was ignored by a lieutenant on duty, Gascon said at the presser. One officer is said to have flushed the fetus in the motel's toilet.
