Cop Draws Gun on Pizza Driver in Traffic Stop, Misconduct Alleged

BLADENSBURG, MD — A cell phone video of a contentious exchange between a pizza delivery driver and a Bladensburg police officer who drew his gun during the traffic stop shows that the other man behaved badly, argue both sides of the dispute.

Christopher Jeffries, 25, an African-American, has filed a lawsuit against the unnamed white Bladensburg Police officer for misconduct. The officer had his gun drawn during a Jan. 16 traffic stop; Jeffries is shown refusing to roll down his window, but instead cracking it to hand his driver’s license to the officer.

Jeffries told FOX DC that he feared for his life in light of white officers who have killed black men and women in incidents across the country. Race has been a factor in the killings of unarmed black men by white police officers in New York City and Ferguson, MO, among others, which sparked the Black Live Matter movement last year.

WATCH: See the video of part of the confrontation posted to YouTube

Bladensburg Police Chief Charles Owens told FOX 5 that the officer saw Jeffries swerve across the center line on Baltimore Avenue in Bladensburg, nearly strike another vehicle as he turned abruptly onto Kenilworth Avenue, and then drive for half a mile while the officer tried to pull him over.

But Jeffries attorney, J. Wyndal Gordon, told the TV station, criticized the officer’s decision to pull his gun.

“This was completely disgraceful that this Bladensburg police officer would have his gun drawn on a routine traffic stop. He had his driver’s license, he had his information,” Gordon said.

Chief Owens blames Jeffries for escalating the incident with his refusal to roll down his window to hand over his driver’s license and registration card as required by law. In the video Jeffries captured on his phone and shared on YouTube, he and the officer talk over each other.

Numerous times the officer orders Jeffries to roll down his window and warns the situation could go “real bad.” When Jeffries says he doesn’t have his registration, he’s ordered to get out of his car.

“Sir, I’m not going to move out of the car,” Jeffries says.

Another officer joins the pair, and also orders Jeffries out of the car as he repeatedly asks what he’s done wrong. The video ends with both sides arguing.

»Image of Christopher Jeffries from FOX DC interview