Two officers with the Tazewell (VA) Police Department declined to resign following an investigation into their behavior stemming from a traffic stop at which a black man claimed one of the officers stopped him because of his race.
According to WVVA-TV, One of the now-terminated officers conducted a traffic stop early last week in which he utilized a clipboard that had a Confederate flag sticker visible to the driver of the stopped vehicle.
The driver—32-year-old William Wilson Jr., a Tazewell County native who now lives in Tennessee—took a picture with Officer D.C. Grizzel and the clipboard outside a gas station where the traffic stop took place.
The clipboard belonged to another officer—T.J. Crabtree—who was not working at the time of the traffic stop.
Both officers were placed on paid administrative leave during the department’s investigation. Grizzel and Crabtree were ultimately offered the opportunity to resign.
They declined, and were subsequently fired.
