Missouri Man Says He Was Threatened by Racist Cop

Calverton Park police vehicles

CALVERTON PARK, Mo. — A Missouri man says a police officer threatened him and made racist comments while arresting him at a traffic stop.

Eric Foster of Calverton Park says he was pulled over on May 22 and eventually taken to jail for unlicensed plates, but had an encounter while being booked that left him fearing for his life.

“I’m doing my paperwork and Officer Moore’s partner said, ‘How do you feel about racist white guy cleaning his gun in front of you?’ And he disarmed his gun and he started shuffling the bullets back,” he said.

Foster says he and the two officers were the only ones in the building when the threat occurred. “I wasn’t racist, I didn’t have an attitude, I didn’t give them any type of reason to even act like that,” Foster said.

KMOV in St. Louis says they contacted Calverton Park Police Chief Vince Delia, who at first said he didn’t know anything about the incident, but after speaking to one of the officers Foster mentioned, claimed the officer had a problem with his weapon and took it apart to in an effort to resolve the issue.

Delia says jail policy prohibits officers from having their weapons in the booking area, but insists his officer wasn’t deliberately trying to scare Foster. Delia said the officers would be disciplined for the incident, but declined to say what discipline they would receive.

Foster says the incident scared him, and hasn’t been able to forget what happened.

“I just want the world to know that this is just not right,” he said.

Foster contacted the NAACP over the incident, who say they plan to file a complaint with justice department.