Jason Parker

Central Florida Deputy Fired for Waving Weapons, Quoting Police Movie ‘Training Day'

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.

A man backed his car into a police cruiser, took off and drove into a ditch. He then jumped out his truck- wearing only boxers- and began dancing in the middle of the road.

"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.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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