Halfmoon, N.Y.

A Saratoga County sheriff's sergeant was suspended after a video posted on the Internet Friday captured him allegedly slapping a young man as the deputy insisted on searching his vehicle, which had a rifle on the back seat.

Sheriff Michael Zurlo on Saturday said he was "very disturbed" by what he saw on the video.

"I really am," the sheriff said. "I don't condone activity as it's portrayed and we're going to look into it and we'll handle this quickly and swiftly."

Sgt. Shawn R. Glans, 48, who has been a police officer for 27 years, was suspended without pay pending an internal investigation.

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The video was captured by a young man who filmed his friend's encounter with Glans early Friday in Halfmoon. Glans confronted the pair after he said they walked out of nearby woods to their vehicle, which was in the parking lot of a business. Glans noticed a .22-caliber rifle on the back seat. The sergeant said they were wearing dark clothes and acting suspiciously, although they broke no laws.

"We'll get a (expletive) search warrant," the video shows Glans telling the young man, who was questioning the deputy's insistence that he be allowed to search the car.

"I wasn't in my car when all this was happening," the young man says. "Like, why don't you want to search, like, my house or something."

The video depicts Glans becoming frustrated as he says: "Let me see your (expletive) keys."

"Why?" the young man asks. "You can't do that."

"Because we're searching your (expletive) car, that's why," Glans says.

The deputy then apparently slaps the young man as he says: "You want to (expletive) resist?" The slap can be heard but is not captured on the video because the camera was pointed downward.

At that point, it appears from sounds in the video that Glans grabs the young man's car keys and tosses them to someone off screen, as he says: "Search the (expletive) car."

It's unclear from the video if another deputy is at the scene. Glans then tells the young man, who remains calm throughout the ordeal, that "if you've got nothing to hide in there ... we'll be on our (expletive) merry way."

The young man filming the incident tells the sergeant that what just happened was "intense" and asks the officer if he's going strike him next. The sheriff's sergeant responds that he could "rip your (expletive) head off and (expletive) down your neck"

"You like that, huh? I can get a lot more intense," the sergeant tells the young man.

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Reached Saturday, Glans said there was more to the encounter than is captured on the video.

"You saw the video. It doesn't look good," Glans told the Times Union. "I'm all about doing the right thing. I had to go to that point because of the factors that came into play. There was a gun that was involved (that) I spotted in the vehicle."

Asked if he would have handled the matter the same way again, Glans said he would, but not if he knew it was being filmed. He acknowledged that he did not know the incident was being videotaped.

"I was concerned. It was a public safety issue," the sergeant said. "If I had to do it all over again ... I'd probably do the same thing. If I knew the camera was there, no, because it does look bad."

Glans, who has also worked for the South Glens Falls police department, said he was in the U.S. Marine Corps before becoming a police officer.

His wife, Carrie, who is a medical provider, said her husband has been under a lot of emotional and physical stress and that she's concerned how the video and any fallout may portray their family in the community.

"What my husband did and how he reacted wasn't the correct way to do it, but there were circumstances that came about beforehand," she said. "He's had a very hard year."

The young men who were confronted by Glans could not be reached for comment Saturday.

A website, Liveleak.com, cited an interview with one of them that was attributed to another website, Photography is Not a Crime. The websites said the young man who filmed the incident said they parked their car at the business and walked to a nearby party. He also said his friend had purchased the .22-caliber rifle earlier that day, had a receipt for the weapon, and was finally let go after showing the deputy the receipt.

Zurlo said the internal investigation was under way Saturday, and that the young men in the video were identified and had been interviewed.

"I don't comment on internal matters or until we get everything done, all the facts, which we're working on today," the sheriff said.

Terence L. Kindlon, an Albany criminal defense attorney whose law firm has six pending cases involving police misconduct, said incidents in which police claim they had permission to search a person's vehicle, but didn't, are common.

"In my experience, most vehicle searches are conducted in complete disregard for the Fourth Amendment," Kindlon said. "Every few years one out of a zillion of these bad searches is captured on video. Then the powers-that-be declare themselves to be 'shocked.' "

In 1999, the town of Wilton and Saratoga County paid $6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a 45-year-old man left paralyzed when a patrol car being driven by Glans smashed head-on into the other vehicle, according to a Times Union article on the case.

Douglas H. McEachron suffered critical brain injuries and a federal jury found Glans was negligent in the crash.

The deputy was responding to a 911 call and driving close to three times the posted speed limit around a sharp curve on Smith Bridge Road in Wilton when he lost control of his vehicle. Glans crossed into the oncoming lane and smashed head-on into McEachron's car.

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @blyonswriter