Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images
- A university officer is accused of pointing his gun at his colleague on the job after an argument over face mask guidelines on campus, according to a report KABC-TV.
- The officers worked at California State University San Bernardino, KABC-TV reported.
- The officer who pulled out his firearm— who is a sergeant according to the victim’s lawyer— said the conversation over face masks “led to the sergeant losing his temper, and ultimately pulling a gun on my client,” Tristan Pelayes told KABC-TV.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A university officer is accused of pointing his firearm at his colleague during an argument about enforcing coronavirus facemask practices on campus grounds, according to local news.
The unidentified officers involved were California State University San Bernardino police, according to KABC-TV.
The situation, which occurred on September 15, was captured on video and resulted in the university and San Bernardino police launching an investigation into what happened, the news station reported.
“We are aware of the incident and an internal investigation is ongoing. Thus, we have no further comment at this time,” a rep for California State University San Bernardino told KABC-TV.
—Rob McMillan (@abc7robmcmillan) October 30, 2020
Video of the incident posted by KABC-TV’s Rob McMillan on Twitter shows one officer pointing his gun at his coworker for a brief moment and putting it away. KABC-TV reported the accused officer is a sergeant, according to Tristan Pelayes, a lawyer for the victim officer.
Pelayes said the incident happened over dialogue from the accused sergeant about enforcing the proper face mask guidelines on campus, according to KABC-TV.
"My client questioned the authority for that. For instance, if we were to arrest somebody or escort somebody off the campus, what is our legal authority for that?" Pelayes told KABC-TV. "Apparently, that conversation led to the sergeant losing his temper, and ultimately pulling a gun on my client."
Pelayes said that the officer reported the incident to the San Bernardino police department which is being investigated "as a misdemeanor charge", according to a department spokesperson, KABC-TV reported.