Video: Seattle Officer Fired for Bias Case
A Seattle Police Department officer involved in the wrongful arrest of an elderly man with a golf club was fired Tuesday.
A Seattle Police Department officer involved in the wrongful arrest of an elderly man with a golf club was fired Tuesday, reports KIRO-TV.
The officer, Cynthia Whitlatch, was previously removed from public patrol duties in January by order of Mayor Ed Murray. Whitlatch, who is white, expressed a strong belief that the disciplinary actions against her were done because key people involved in the case were black.
William Wingate, 70, was arrested by Whitlatch while walking in Capitol Hill in July 2014. It was the first time he had been arrested. He was using a golf club as a cane. Wingate, who is African-American, said he believes the arrest was racially motivated.
Whitlatch claimed that Wingate swung the club at her, even though there was no indication of that on her patrol car's dashcam. The charges against Wingate were later dismissed, but several other behavioral complaints about Whitlatch surfaced including one based on racially-charged Facebook posts.
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