An Ocoee Police Department officer is out of a job after admitting to using a racial slur on the job.
- Former Lt. William Wagner used N-word to describe damaged home
- This was Wagner's only violation with the department
Former Ocoee police officer Lt. William Wagner used the N-word to another officer while at work and immediately reported himself for the inappropriate comment, according to a department press release.
According to an internal affairs disposition report that Chief of Police Charles J. Brown released in a press statement, Wagner, who is white, was talking to another white officer on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, about debris still at his home from Hurricane Irma and said he felt like he lived at a N-word house.
In his statement to police, Wagner said, "I was speaking about myself and a condition in my home in a time where I really just didn't have anything else in me to give."
Wagner, who has been with the department for almost 19 years, went to the chief in late September saying he was extremely sorry for what he said and that he did not mean it in a racial way.
However, according to the department, the use of that word in any context violates policy.
Wagner was terminated on Thursday following an internal investigation. He has been with the department since Oct. 27, 1998.
“The Ocoee Police Department holds all members of the department to the highest standards of the law enforcement profession, and Lieutenant Wagner’s behavior has fallen short," Brown stated in the press release. "His actions undermine the tremendous work our police officers do every day to build a true partnership with our Ocoee community based on trust and respect.”
The other officer who Wagner was speaking with told the department he was surprised by Wagner’s comment, but that he did not take offense to it because he could tell he was just speaking out of frustration.
The report says this was Wagner’s only violation.