Ray Albers, Cop Who Threatened Ferguson Protesters, Resigns

Ray Albers, Cop Who Threatened Ferguson Protesters, Resigns

A Missouri police officer who was caught on video raising his weapon and telling Ferguson protesters that he would kill them has resigned from the force.

Lt. Ray Albers, 46, stepped down from the St. Ann police department on Thursday, the St. Louis Dispatch reported. The resignation comes just a little over a week after The Huffington Post and other outlets confirmed Albers' identity in footage of the officer threatening civilians protesting the death of Michael Brown.

"I will fucking kill you!" Albers shouts on video, his weapon pointed at unarmed protesters.

When asked his name, Albers can be heard telling the protester: "Go fuck yourself."

Albers, who served in the military, was a 20-year veteran of the department.

In an earlier interview with The Huffington Post, St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez said he was "highly angry and upset" at Albers' choice of words, but defended the officer's use of raising his weapon in the air.

"He saw three to four suspects with bandanas on, and saw one of them raise a gun towards him," Jimenez said. "That made him draw his weapon up to the crowd, and he was scanning and moving that weapon back and forth, trying to assess the scene. ... Him seeing the gun in the crowd, he had every right to protect himself in fear of danger until he assessed the scene."

According to The Dispatch, Jimenez said if the incident in Ferguson happened at any other time, Albers would have been suspended without pay.

"A whole bunch of what you'd call citizen journalists, who were sitting with cameras recording, waiting for something stupid to happen, which they got. They won on this one," Jimenez told the publication.

In another incident, Glendale Officer Matthew Pappert was fired Thursday after posting on Facebook that Ferguson protesters should be "put down like rabid dogs" and asked where "is a Muslim with a backpack when you need them?"

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