Andover fire lieutenant on leave after confronting woman of color to check ‘someone wasn’t stealing something’
The incident was caught on video that the woman shared on social media.
An Andover Fire Rescue lieutenant has been placed on administrative leave after a video posted on social media shows he parked in a private driveway as a woman of color was collecting her mail because he was concerned someone may be stealing from the home, officials said Thursday.
In a statement, Town Manager Andrew Flanagan and Fire Rescue Chief Michael Mansfield said the lieutenant, who was not identified, is on leave as an independent investigator reviews the facts surrounding the incident.
Town officials were notified Wednesday of the video circulating on Twitter.
The 15-second recording, which had garnered over 14,000 views as of Thursday afternoon after it was posted Tuesday, shows a man sitting in a black, Chevrolet Tahoe SUV while parked in a driveway.
The resident, who was getting her mail at the time, according to the post, can be heard off-camera telling him, “This is literally none of your business.”
The man replies by saying he’ll drive up to the door, before another woman can be heard telling him that it’s her sister’s house.
“I know,” the man says. “I just wanted to make sure someone wasn’t stealing something.”
The woman called the lieutenant a “racist white man” in the post.
“In the midst of everything going on, look at this,” she wrote, adding that the man followed “me and my friend’s car recording us and questioned if I lived there.”
“This world is ridiculous,” she wrote.
I’m the midst of everything going on look at this I live in Andover,ma and this racist white man decided to approach me for doing nothing but getting my mail at MY HOME…. he followed me and my friends car recording us and questioned if I lived there. This world is ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/ihHkry8CiQ
— Gabby Batista (@gbatis18) June 3, 2020
Town officials said the man was later identified as an off-duty fire lieutenant who was driving his personal vehicle at the time.
“This is an extremely concerning situation, one that demands a full accounting of the facts,” Flanagan said.
The Town of Andover consulted with its labor counsel about the incident and retained services of the third-party investigator to “conduct a holistic review of the matter,” the statement said.
The lieutenant is out of work on indefinite, paid administrative leave as provided for under the terms of the Fire Rescue collective bargaining agreement, officials said. His name was not released on advice of the labor counsel, according to the town.
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