Phoenix Police Officer Fired After Pulling Gun On Shoplifting Suspects

A Phoenix police offi­cer who point­ed a gun and yelled pro­fan­i­ties at a Black fam­i­ly in May will be fired, the chief of police said Tuesday.

“The Disciplinary review board (DRB) rec­om­mend­ed [Meyer] receive a six-week unpaid sus­pen­sion, but the deci­sion on dis­ci­pline is mine,” Chief Jeri Williams said at a news con­fer­ence. “And after meet­ing with the offi­cer Chris Meyer per­son­al­ly, and con­sid­er­ing all the facts of the case, I have noti­fied him of my inten­tion to ter­mi­nate his employment.”

In June, the Phoenix Police Department opened an inves­ti­ga­tion into some of its offi­cers over their use of exces­sive force in a shoplift­ing-theft inci­dent involv­ing 22-year-old Dravon Ames.

We pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed, viral video of the May 29 inci­dent shows offi­cer Meyer scream­ing threats at a fam­i­ly in a van; Dravon, his preg­nant fiancé Aisha Harper, 24, and their two young daughters.

“You’re gonna f*cking get shot!” the cop yells at one point. “I’m gonna put a f*cking cap in your f*cking head.”

Ames, Harper and their daugh­ters, Island, 4 and 1‑year-old London, were held at gun­point after Island walked out of a dol­lar store with a Barbie-like doll – unbe­knownst to the parents.

The arrest­ing cops lied in their reports, neglect­ing to men­tion their threats to kill the fam­i­ly. They also report­ed­ly turned off their dash and body cam­eras. As one Twitter user not­ed, “This is not uncon­scious bias. It’s mali­cious, cal­cu­lat­ed, life-threat­en­ing racism.

A dis­ci­pli­nary review board rec­om­mend­ed Meyer receive a six-week suspension.

“In this case, a 240-hour sus­pen­sion is just not suf­fi­cient to reverse the adverse effects of his actions on our depart­ment and our com­mu­ni­ty,” Williams said Tuesday.

“Unlike oth­er pro­fes­sions, we don’t have a lux­u­ry of a do-over,” she said.

Months after the inci­dent, Ames and Harper said they’re still shaken.

“Some nights we don’t get no sleep. Some nights you just still think about what hap­pened,” said Ames. “So to know that he’s been fired gives us some type of relief, but there is still a lot more work to be done.”

Ames is refer­ring to police reform and the family’s impend­ing set­tle­ment with the city.

“This is par­tial jus­tice for my clients. For them to get full jus­tice, the job is now mine to get them com­pen­sa­tion in the law­suit,” said attor­ney Tom Horne. “We will try to medi­ate, if the city is rea­son­able, we will settle.”