An upstate New York officer resigned Monday morning after video surfaced of him allegedly slapping a man and cursing at him for refusing to let the officer search his car.
Shawn Glans, a 48-year-old former sergeant with the Saratoga County Sheriff's Department, now faces charges including official misconduct and harassment, WNYT reported.
Video of the incident taken Friday shows Glans cursing at a suspect after the officer saw a .22-caliber rifle in the back seat of a car in a parking lot Though the man and his friend had broken no laws, Glans said they were wearing dark clothes and acting suspiciously, according to the Times Union.
The officer can be heard demanding the owner's car keys. When the owner refuses to let the officer search the car without a warrant, Glans becomes confrontational.
"We'll get a fucking search warrant," Glans can be heard saying before calling the man a "fucking idiot."
"Let me see your fucking keys, I'm searching your fucking car," he says. Though not captured on camera, an audible slap can be heard as the officer yells "you want to fucking resist?"
After calling the vehicle's owner an "asshole," Glans tells a man filming that he can get "even more intense."
"I'll rip your fucking head off and shit down your neck," Glans says to the man filming the outburst.
After being suspended on Friday, Glans told the Times Union that he would have handled the situation differently only because he was being filmed.
"If I had to do it all over again...I'd probably do the same thing," he told the publication. "If I knew the camera was there, no, because it does look bad."
The recorded tirade is not Glans' first time inciting anger for his on-duty action. In 1996, the town of Wilton paid a $60-million federal lawsuit after the former officer slammed his police car into another car, leaving 45-year-old Douglas McEarchron -- a father of six -- permanently paralyzed. McEarchron can no longer walk or talk.
Glans lost control of his cruiser and crashed head-on into a vehicle driven by 45-year-old Douglas McEachron, leaving the father of six paralyzed. Glans was traveling at least double or possibly three times the speed limit of 20 mph when he crossed into the westbound lane and hit McEachron’s 1989 Chevrolet, according to court records.
Glan's wife, Carrie, told the Times Union that her husband reacted poorly in the incident caught on video, but that there were "circumstances that came beforehand."
"He's had a very hard year," she said.
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