The Virginia State Police has fired a state trooper caught on video violently arresting a black motorist and telling him, “You’re going to get your ass whooped” — more than two years after the incident, according to new reports.
Trooper Charles Hewitt was fired in February for his role in the 2019 traffic stop in Fairfax County, an attorney representing driver Derrick Thompson told the Washington Post.
Video recorded by Thompson, 29, during his arrest — which went viral last summer — showed Hewitt playing to the camera, looking it dead in the eye and saying, “Watch the show, folks,” before yanking Thompson out of the car.
“Get off my neck, sir. You are harming me,” Thompson can be heard saying off-camera.
Derrick Thompson and Trooper Charles Hewitt from a 2019 arrest video.
The arrest came after Thompson filmed Hewitt unlocking and opening the car door while threatening to hurt him.
“Take a look at me. I’m a f–king specimen right here, buddy. You have gotten on my last nerve,” Hewitt tells Thompson — who repeats variations of “my hands are up,” “I’m being threatened,” and “I am in no threat to these officers” throughout the arrest.
“You have gotten on my last nerve, all right?” Hewitt tells him. “You’re going to get your ass whooped in front of the Lord and all creation.”
“You can bring that with you. I’ll let you film that whole thing,” he says before violently removing Thompson from the vehicle.
Thompson pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor obstruction of justice, but all other charges stemming from the arrest were dropped.
Video of the arrest went viral last July. At the time, the state’s superintendent of police said Hewitt’s conduct was not “in agreement with the established standards of conduct required of a Virginia trooper.”
Thompson sued Hewitt and the state last year, and received $20,000 in a settlement reached this month, attorney Joshua Erlich said. The Virginia State Police declined to admit wrongdoing.
“Mr. Thompson filed this case because Trooper Hewitt’s behavior was unconscionable, and Mr. Thompson is happy with the outcome,” Erlich said.
“He thought he deserved — and received — monetary compensation. And although the VSP did not admit to any wrongdoing, Mr. Thompson is heartened Trooper Hewitt is no longer on the street and thinks Virginia is safer for it.”
Watch the video here.
