I'll Rip Your F****** Head Off': New York Cop Suspended Without Pay for What He Was Caught on Camera Doing

Curses, a slap and threats of deadly violence — that's what a police officer was caught on camera doing to an apparently innocent man.

Now, as the Daily Gazette reported, the officer is facing a degree of justice: suspension without pay.

Image via YouTube

As the video posted to YouTube Friday shows, a Saratoga County sheriff's deputy gets verbally and physically abusive with a man as they argue over whether police should be able to search the man's car.

“We’ll get a f****** search warrant,” the deputy says.

“I wasn’t in my car when all this was happening,” the young man says. “Like, why don’t you want to search, like, my house or something?”

According to Adam Roberts, the man filming the encounter, the incident occurred because police said they saw a rifle in the back of the parked car.

“Let me see your f****** keys,” the deputy demands in the video.

“Why?” the young man asks. “You can’t do that.”

“Because we’re searching your f****** car, that’s why,” the deputy says.

He slaps the man as he grabs his keys and has another officer search the car — with no warrant.

When Roberts remarks that things were getting "intense," the deputy assures him he can get "a lot more intense" and threatens, "I'll rip your f****** head off and shove it down your neck."

(Content warning: very strong language)

According to Roberts, the encounter ended peacefully after the deputy was shown a receipt for the rifle in question.

Roberts and several media outlets have identified the deputy in the video as Sgt. Shawn Glans of the Saratoga County sheriff's department.

As the Daily Gazette noted, Glans has wrought violence on civilians before: In 1996, he lost control of his squad car while driving three times the speed limit, slamming into 45-year-old Douglas McEachron.

McEachron was paralyzed in the crash, and the Albany Times Union reported that in the ensuing court battle, Glans was found to be negligent and McEachron was awarded $6 million — which Saratoga County, not Glans himself, had to pay.

While the Saratoga County sheriff did not identify Glans as the officer in the Friday video — the investigation is an internal matter for now — he did condemn the deputy's action.

“I’m kind of very disturbed with what I saw in the video,” Sheriff Michael Zurlo said in a statement. “I’m not going to condone this type of activity as the video portrayed. I’m going to look into this and I’m going to act accordingly — quickly and swiftly — with regards to this.”

The deputy has been suspended without pay as the investigation proceeds, the Daily Gazette reported.

UPDATE: The Albany Times Union got in touch with Glans.

The deputy said he would have done the same thing over again, unless he knew he was being filmed.

"You saw the video. It doesn't look good," Glans told the Times Union. "I'm all about doing the right thing. I had to go to that point because of the factors that came into play. There was a gun that was involved (that) I spotted in the vehicle."

Glans said he didn't know he was being recorded.

"I was concerned. It was a public safety issue," he said. "If I had to do it all over again ... I'd probably do the same thing. If I knew the camera was there, no, because it does look bad."

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