FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has announced that a deputy was fired after surveillance video showed him punching a detainee.
Officials said Deputy Kevin Fanti was in the process of booking 19-year-old Kyle Paul at the Main Jail on June 26 when he dropped a paper.
“It’s unacceptable. There isn’t any excuse for it,” Tony said. “There isn’t a policy that I need to see to tell me that that’s wrong.”
Fanti could be seen on surveillance picking up the paper, shoving Paul and throwing several punches.
“One of my deputies decided that they were going to respond with slamming a piece of paper into his chest and inciting further violence and punched him several times, as you witnessed,” Tony said. “Too many of our good deputies’ reputation continue to get tarnished because, like in every organization that exists here on this planet, there will be a bad seed that make it through the recruitment and application process. The expectations and the standards that are here in this organization now are at the highest level.”
7News showed the video to Paul’s mother. She is not in contact with her son but said she is disgusted by the way he was treated.
“It is sad. It is really sad,” she said.
Tony praised his command staff for reporting the incident to him.
“These are my men and women that’s holding this place accountable,” he said at a press conference. “This is my messaging, and we’re changing the culture that exists here. Too many of our good deputies’ reputation continue to get tarnished because, like every organization that exists here on this planet, there will be a bad seed that makes it through the recruitment and application process.”
After reviewing the video on Thursday, Tony fired Fanti on the spot.
This is not the first time the now fired deputy has generated headlines.
Before he was hired at BSO, Fanti worked at Gun World of South Florida in Deerfield Beach. In the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, it was revealed he sold the shooter an AK-47. The shooter was of legal age to buy a gun.
The deputy was hired in April 2018 and had still been on his probationary period.
“What’s unique here is that this young man is on probation,” Tony said, “and he has failed to meet the standards that I have for all these deputies. He’s been terminated. He will not have any opportunity to be interviewed by my investigators because he didn’t deserve it.”
The deputies union said they are not defending Fanti.
Because Fanti was still on probation, there will be no appeal process, and his termination is effective immediately.
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