Two CPD Officers fired, one for "unlawful" detention, another for use of "excessive" force.

The "harm they have inflicted will linger," but their actions are "not reflective" of the police department as a whole, said CPD Chief RaShall Brackney.

Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney today indirectly revealed that Charlottesville Police Officer Joseph Wood has been fired by referring to him as "former" Officer Wood during a press conference today. Indeed, when a reporter asked if there would be consequences for Officer Wood, Brackney referenced her use of the word "former" rather than saying he had been terminated.

An IA investigation found that Officer Wood's decision to detain LaQuinn Gilmore on the night of January 12, 2021, was "unreasonable" and that patting him down was "unwarranted and unlawful," Brackney said. However, Brackney said it was determined that no excessive force was used, that there was no racially biased based harassment on the part of Wood, and that several claims that Gilmore had made about the incident were untrue.

Brackney also showed the police bodycam footage of Wood detaining Gilmore, which will be available online.

As Brackney pointed out, Officer Wood was about to leave after checking on Gilmore, but when Gilmore said "cops play too much" to him he reengaged and asked for Gilmore's license, something Brackney actually used as evidence that it wasn't racially biased based harassment that caused Wood to reengage, but rather feeling insulted and angered by the comment. [Hmm...couldn't those be the same thing?]

Brackney also spoke about "former" CPD Officer Jeffery Yeager, who was convicted of assault and battery last September, saying that Yeager had used "excessive and unreasonable force" during the arrest of Andre Henderson last March, and had also "lied and misrepresented the facts" about the incident.

Of the Officers, Brackney said that the "harm they have inflicted will linger," but that their actions are "not reflective" of the police department as a whole.