South Florida Sun-Sentinel
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. -- A police officer previously reprimanded for shooting at a fleeing car has been fired for repeatedly pepper-spraying a naked, handcuffed young man who was apparently here for spring break.
Officer Allen Whitt, 27, lost his job Tuesday. Police also turned over evidence, including a surveillance tape of Monday’s pepper-spraying, to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for an investigation that could lead to criminal charges.
Whitt, who joined the department in August 2003, did not answer repeated calls to his home and cell phones.
He had submitted a letter of resignation March 1, citing personal reasons and writing that he didn’t think he was cut out for police work. He was due to serve his last day with the department Tuesday, but was fired after supervisors viewed the pepper-spray video.
``It’s a clear-cut violation,’' said police Major David Humphreys. ``We will not condone this.’'
Another officer had arrested Colin Robertson III, 21, of Annapolis, Md., outside a beachfront bar on charges of disorderly intoxication, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence and took him to the police station.
The suspect disrobed and flooded a holding cell by stuffing paper into a toilet, causing water spill into an adjacent room, Humphreys said.
The video shows Whitt then entering the cell and yelling for Robertson to come forward. When he refused, Whitt can be seen showering the young man’s face, neck and back with pepper spray.
Nude, shaking and holding his hands above his face, Robertson was led to a bench and handcuffed to a steel bar, where the video showed Whitt again spraying his eyes and face until the man waved his hand in defeat. Police said he was not seriously injured.
Whitt also had been investigated for allegedly firing four rounds as a car sped away from officers Jan 2. No one was injured and Whitt received a reprimand. His personnel file also shows he also was reprimanded and suspended five days in January for missing work because he was intoxicated.