Officer was filmed telling a black man: ‘You’d be the first one I’d shoot if I had a gun’

A West Midlands police officer has been given a final written warning after he was filmed telling a black man: “You’d be the first one I’d shoot if I had a gun.”

The video, which was recorded on a mobile phone while police searched a property in Coventry on 24 August in 2017, also showed the officer asking a man if he was “going to go Black Lives Matter” on the patrol team. The video was later posted on Facebook.

Play Video 0:45 'You'd be first one I'd shoot,' West Midlands police officer tells black man – video

Following an investigation, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found that the officer who made the remarks had a case to answer for misconduct. A misconduct meeting on 8 June resulted in the officer being given a final written warning.

The IOPC said: “The officer told our investigator that he regretted making the comments and, while he accepted they had been unprofessional and clumsy, he had not meant them to be racist, offensive or threatening.”

Another officer was found to have a case to answer for not challenging the comments made by his colleague. He was dealt with through management action. The IOPC found there was no evidence that two other officers present had heard the comments.

The investigation by the police watchdog included reviewing footage from the incident, taking statements from witnesses and interviewing the officers present.

Derrick Campbell, the IOPC’s regional director commissioner, said: “We are conscious of the impact on public confidence in policing such an incident can have. The remarks made were inappropriate and the officer who made them has been sanctioned accordingly after the force agreed with the findings of our investigation.”



The footage shows officers talking to a man, named locally as Jack Chambers, 24. One officer asks Chambers why he did not open the door to let the police in, to which he replies: “Because I was fucking half asleep ... I didn’t know who you was and you were climbing up the window like thieves.”

Chambers then says: “Police? That’s even worse. I’ve been seeing all kinds of videos, I have.”

One officer is then heard to say: “You’re going to go Black Lives Matter on us, are ya?” Chambers replies: “Yeah” and laughter is heard.

The officer then responds: “You would be the first one I would shoot if I had a gun, definitely.” Chambers replies: “Oh, fucking hell.” The officer appears unaware that the exchange is being recorded.

Ch Insp Yvonne Bruton, from West Midlands Police’s professional standards team, said: “It is important to WMP that the public have full confidence in our officers who are expected to be sensitive to the needs of the diverse communities we serve. The officer in question got it wrong on this occasion and has apologised for his actions.”

In March, the daughter of a man who was shot by West Midlands police when he was allegedly unarmed launched a petition calling for a public inquiry into the “unjust treatment of black males” by the police and the judicial system.

Sharif Cousins, a former gang member and youth charity worker, was shot in the chest by police on 26 July in 2017. The IOPC has yet to publish its report into the incident.