‘This Is How You Guys Get Killed Out Here’

A Miami-Dade police officer has now been placed on desk duty, with an internal investigation underway, after being captured on camera telling a Black motorist, “this is how you guys get killed out here.”

The encounter was captured during a traffic stop by the driver, Gerardson Nicolas, while he was on his way to work last week in the North Miami Beach region.

“Give me your driver’s license, registration and insurance. If not, you will not be going to work today,” the officer said. “Simple thing, man. This is how you guys get killed out here, man.”

“What? Say that again. Say what you just said,” Nicolas responded.

“Registration and insurance,” the officer insisted.

According to NBC Miami, Nicolas admits that “he wasn’t wearing his seat belt when he was stopped on Northeast 159th Street near 18th Avenue.”

This leaves some social media users divided on whether or not the police officer’s remarks were “threatening” or how not wearing a seat belt can be deadly.

“People die from not wearing seat belts every day,” Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, told reporters at The Miami Herald.

Yet, George A. Perez, the Miami-Dade Police Interim Director and the man who ordered the probe, says the “inference” is bothersome to him.

Nicolas says he started recording because he was scared for his life. 

“I was scared, I was scared. I didn’t think my life was going to make it,” he told reporters. “When he asked me for my license, open the door, I started recording. I was looking for my stuff, my license, because I didn’t see my wallet. I was looking for my wallet and that wasn’t my car, that was my mom’s car and I didn’t know where the registration was, I was looking, looking. He got mad.”

The Miami Herald reports that Nicholas received a ticket for driving while his license was suspended, not having a valid license tag and not having insurance.

Nicolas was not arrested, nor was his car towed. He also spoke with officers earlier this week and filed an official complaint.

The Miami-Dade police department is currently reviewing 30 minutes of body camera footage and promises to “address all matters of public concern equitably, fairly and in accordance with applicable laws.”