A Medford detective was placed on administrative leave after a video posted on YouTube appeared to show the off-duty officer threatening to kill a driver Sunday night.
WBZ Monday reported the cop featured in the video is Detective Stephen LeBert, and said he is on paid leave. A press contact at the Medford Police Department did not immediately return a phone call from Metro. In the video, the enraged man, in plain clothes, appears to threaten to “put a hole right through [the driver’s] head” during a traffic stop.
The stop came after the driver apparently drove the wrong way in a rotary, but the mistake was not captured on video.
“You’re lucky I’m a cop, because I’d be beating the [expletive] out of you right now,” the man identified as Lebert said in the video.
The altercation was captured on a camera attached to the driver’s dashboard. The driver posted the video early Monday morning using YouTube ID basedboston. He had been identified by news outlets as a 25-year-old named Michael who did not want to share his last name.
Mike says he feels his life was in danger by a hot headed officer just because he drove the wrong way#wbz pic.twitter.com/dn1gezb5IE
— Paul Burton (@PaulWBZ) July 27, 2015
“I am troubled by what I have seen on the video,”Medford Police Chief Leo Sacco told WCVB. “I was upset to see one of my officers involved in this kind of activity.”
