Shocking video shows an off-duty Connecticut police officer punching a driver after he threatened to ticket him after he honked at a man who failed to turn at a red light.
Dashcam footage from Thomas Broculio’s company van captured Meriden Police Department Corporal Allen Gunter being stopped at a red light in Rocky Hill in December. NBC Connecticut report.
Broculio, 37, who was carrying his dog with shotgun, parked his car behind the off-duty police officer and waited for him to turn right at a red light.
“What are you doing?” Broculio asked the driver in front of him, honking his horn.
Gunter, 57, then got out of his Toyota Tacoma wearing gym clothes and a zip-up hoodie and approached Broculio’s car, waving his badge.
“You can’t run a red light here, you son of a bitch,” shouted a 20-year veteran of the Meriden Police Department.
Broculio pointed out that the sign said “stop on red” and not “no turn on red” and accused Gunter of being on his phone and not paying attention to traffic.
“I saw you looking down and doing other things,” Broculio said.
“No, I was moving something around in my bag,” Gunter replied.
After that, the interaction between the men begins to heat up.
Gunter gave the man a ticket for simply honking his horn and threatened to call his “boss.”
Broculio then asks the off-duty police officer for his badge number.
Video obtained by the outlet shows Gunter reaching into Broculio’s car and punching him in the face.
As Gunter backed into his truck, Broculio yelled, “You’re going to be arrested for assault on a civilian.”
Gunter drove away and Broculio called 911 to report the assault, which was caught on camera.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by the media, Broculio told police that the impact of the punch left him dazed and that he may have suffered a concussion.
A photo taken by a responding Rocky Hill Police Department officer shows her left cheek swollen and red.
Police then approached Gunter’s home and requested a statement and body camera footage obtained by the news program.
“So he’s saying I hit him?” Gunter asked the officer. “So he’s yelling at me and there’s nothing I can claim about breach of peace?”
Gunter later admitted to punching Broculio while speaking.
“It’s my fault, it’s wrong. I shouldn’t have done it,” Gunter said.
Officers also recorded his hands and found a red mark on his right index finger.
Meriden police launched an internal affairs investigation into the assault, which determined the off-duty officer violated the department’s code of conduct.
Gunter, who works as a school resource officer at Thomas Edison Middle School in Meriden, was charged with breach of peace and third-degree assault.
“[Ganter] “Corporal Gunter has also been removed from his duties as a school resource officer, and as a result of the disciplinary action taken as part of the IA investigation, Corporal Gunter has been permanently removed from his duties as an SRO,” Meriden Police said in a statement. Stated. fox 61.
He was also suspended without pay for five days and must participate in de-escalation training for the next three years.
