A Florida sheriff's deputy was fired after officials say he waved his firearm and stun gun while quoting lines from Denzel Washington's character in “Training Day,'' a movie about a corrupt law enforcement officer.
The Orlando Sentinel reports Lake County Deputy Dean Zipes, who was with the department for just over a year, was fired April 21.
Police dash-cam video captured Zipes on Feb 16. rubbing his pistol and Taser together in the direction of a convenience store in front of a police trainee. An internal affairs review says the action replicates a scene from the 2001 movie.
Zipes told investigators he was trying to be funny.
"I am not a rogue, reckless, dangerous, insane guy that slipped through the cracks at the hiring process and somehow got a gun and a badge,” he told investigators, according to the report.
The report says Zipes twice pulled his firearm in an office setting, voiced racial slurs, made a motion to draw his gun at a pizza delivery boy and became upset after not receiving free Starbucks coffee.