Color Culture, Inequality, Injustice, Mainstream News, News, Police Brutality, Race, Relevant To You

Ex-officer gets probation for holding black man at gunpoint, kneeling on neck

66-year-old Scott Gudmundsen, a former policer officer, held Barry Wesley and another and accused them of being members of antifa and terrorists.

An ex-police officer in Colorado has been sentenced to probation after holding a Black man and his colleague at gunpoint.

The Denver Post reported 66-year-old Scott Gudmundsen held Barry Wesley, a Black college athlete at Colorado State University, and another person at gunpoint as they traveled door-to-door as a roofing salesman last June. According to the report, Gudmundsen knelt on the neck of Wesley with a gun jammed into his back and claimed both men were terrorists and Antifa. He allegedly said he would not kill the football player, but that the police would.

 

RIP Mikayla Miller: Black LGBTQ Teen Was Reportedly ‘Lynched’ In Boston Suburb

 

“I can still feel how hard and how fast my heartbeat was,” Wesley said in court Tuesday. “I can still remember the amount of adrenaline in my body… I was certain my death was going to be another hashtag, another reason for people to protest, because it was clear that to Mr. Gudmundsen my Black life did not matter.”

Scott Gudmundsen and CSU football player Barry Wesley (Credit: Loveland PD and CSU Rams website)

Gudmundsen pleaded guilty to a single felony count of menacing with a weapon and was not indicted on hate crime charges, even though requested by Wesley’s lawyer, Qusair Mohamedbhai. Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Michelle Brinegar sentenced Gudmundsen to probation, instead of a two-and-a-half-year sentence to community corrections.

“There is no justice I can give that is adequate to the victims in this case,” she said, and addressed Wesley directly according to the news outlet. “This is the best I can do. And I really do feel this is the most appropriate sentence to honor the trauma you’ve endured.”

Gudmundsen entered his own apologetic statement and cited side effects from a a knee surgery for causing his behavior.

“I’m trying to scratch my head and figure out what happened and why I acted the way I did,” he said. “…I’m horrified by my behavior. The anesthesia I was under apparently had a lasting effect on me and I was strange in the head for about six weeks… I apologize to the victims. I’m sorry.”

Source: Ex-officer gets probation for holding Black man at gunpoint, kneeling on neck