By Police1 Staff
NEW ORLEANS – Newly released video shows an incident in a New Orleans East gas station that caused an NOPD police officer’s resignation after he pulled out two guns during a verbal altercation.
Officer Devyn Swanier argued with 17-year-old Michael Martin at the gas pump after a female friend of Martin’s reportedly bumped into Swanier’s goddaughter in the parking lot, Fox 8 reported.
Swanier, who was off-duty at the time, retrieved a personal gun and an NOPD-issued glock from his trunk during the argument, and because it was unclear why the weapons were involved, a police investigation and criminal charges against Swanier resulted.
The video footage includes Swanier’s and Martin’s audio interviews with an NOPD investigator from April of this year.
“You don’t understand deadly force,” the investigator is heard telling Swanier.
Swanier stated that he could not confirm seeing a weapon in Martin’s hand, but he also could not confirm that no weapon existed, and after several more rapid-fire questions from the investigator, Swanier, apparently tearful, resigned.
“This resignation is voluntary and for my own free will,” Swanier shakily stated.
The district attorney has dropped charges following the release of the footage, which cannot confirm wrongdoing on Swanier’s part.
Nothing in the video exists to prove Swanier’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Rafael Goyeneche, a Crime Commission spokesperson, stated.
Martin was never physically harmed, and it is unclear whether or not he feared physical harm.
He is seen on tape yelling at Swanier before he eventually drove away.