Joshua Bote | USA TODAY

USA TODAY

An award ceremony honoring a sheriff's deputy turned unsettling after a city commissioner called him out for "falsely arresting" him four years ago.

During the weekly city commission meeting last Wednesday in Tamarac, Florida, Commissioner E. Mike Gelin disrupted the congratulatory tone of the ceremony with his brief condemnation of the officer.

"Joshua Gallardo, can you come down for a second?" he asked.

Minutes earlier, Gallardo was honored with a Deputy of the Month award for the month of April for arresting a man wanted for a murder committed in El Salvador, per WBFS-TV.

"It's good to see you again," he said as Gallardo walked down to the front of the chambers.

“You probably don’t remember me, but you’re the police officer who falsely arrested me four years ago,” Gelin, who is black, told Gallardo. “You lied on the police report. I believe you’re a rogue police officer, you’re a bad police officer and you don’t deserve to be here.”

The incident Gelin described, according to a statement he gave to USA TODAY, took place in July 2015 and involved a violent altercation between two homeless men fighting. Gelin, with another individual, tried to stop the fight. Another man was trying to aid one of the homeless men, who was hit with a glass bottle.

"I took out my phone to record, thinking that if he died," he said in the statement, "at least his family could see that he was cared for in his last moments."

When Gallardo allegedly arrived on the scene, Gelin said, he was arrested after Gallardo "singled him out" to stop recording and back up. He was arrested after failing to follow "commands to move from the area.” per records obtained by the Miami Herald.

Gelin was not charged, he said.

"I was profoundly affected by my wrongful arrest and the fact that nothing was done about it, made it even worse," he said in the statement. "It was a traumatizing experience that I have played out in my head many times. I had a flashback and a flood of emotions came to me at the meeting and so, I spoke up."

Tamarac Mayor Michelle Gomez covered her mouth during the exchange, seemingly in shock. She grabbed the mic after the exchange, reminding the sheriff's office that their work was appreciated.

Charges dropped: Florida officer who arrested 2 elementary school children fired

In a later interview with WBFS-TV, she shamed Gelin for his remarks, which she told the station could have violated the city's civility code, and might result in his censure.

“That’s one person’s personal experience and grudge that was unfortunately laid out in a public forum, an inappropriate forum in my opinion,” she told the station.

Gelin's comments received a prompt backlash from other city officials and law enforcement.

"As a public official, Commissioner Gelin's behavior towards a Broward Sheriff's Office deputy is unacceptable," said Rod Skirvin, the Broward County Benevolent Association president, in a statement shared on Facebook that doubled as an announcement that the police union would revoke its endorsement of Gelin.

Gelin said that the current County Sheriff Gregory Tony reached out after the ceremony and offered "for us to work constructively together to bring about positive change."

"I will do that because I am about action," he said. "I don't want anyone to go through what I went through or worse."

Broward County Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.

Follow Joshua Bote on Twitter: @joshua_bote

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