FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF News) – One of the two Fort Worth police officers demoted last Friday for allegedly leaking body-camera footage of an incident involving a white officer arresting a black mother and her two daughters has called for Chief Joel Fitzgerald’s resignation.
Former Deputy Chief Vance Keyes and former Assistant Chief Abdul Pridgen have denied being the source of the leaks.
Captain Vance Keyes, backed by several black community leaders from Fort Worth at a press conference, criticized Fitzgerald’s handling of the situation from the start of the incident, which occurred last December.
“The police department and ultimately the city mishandling and response to that incident was akin to trying to extinguish a forest fire with a water pistol. Given that response, no one should be surprised that instead of abating the flames have only spread,” he said.
The incident gained national attention after the body-camera video showed Officer William Martin arresting Jacqueline Craig, the Fort Worth mother who called 911 to report an assault on her son, and her two daughters.
Martin received a 10-day suspension for his actions but Pridgen and Keyes were demoted. It’s a situation that has the Craig family, their supporters and leaders in the black community up in arms.
Keyes said Chief Fitzgerald’s claim that the two officers were not truthful during the department’s investigation is false and that Fitzgerald is being a hypocrite.
“I am not some backdoor dealing, double talking, side stepping political puppet. I am a career public servant,” he said.
Keyes said Fitzgerald cares more about political mobility than the welfare of the community.
“I must respect his official position but I no longer respect his judgement,” he said.
Although facing a suspension in addition to being demoted, Keyes said he did not want to people to forget what is at the heart of this matter.
“My personal situation and that of my colleague, Abdul Pridgen, cannot and should not overshadow the Jacqueline Craig incident,” he said.
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