The Columbus city council has suspended a police officer without pay for 14 days as a result of two separate incidents.
The action against Officer Toni Howard came after the council met in executive session during Tuesday’s regular board meeting.
City attorney Jeff Turnage would not confirm the name of the officer nor the nature of the incidents that led to the suspension, but a source confirmed Howard as the officer who will be suspended.
“The council discussed two separate incidents of misconduct and agreed on suspensions of three days for one offense and 14 days for the other,” Turnage said. “There was a substitute motion to have the suspensions run concurrently, which was passed. At the request of the employee’s attorney, the suspension will not take place until after the holidays.”
Although Turnage would not release any information on the offenses that led to the suspension, Howard was facing disciplinary action in connection with a Sept. 11 incident in which she reportedly pointed a Taser at a Lowndes County Adult Detention inmate. The inmate, who body camera footage shows had his hands cuffed behind his back and his feet shackled, was sitting on an examination table in the Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle emergency room at the time of the incident.
Howard, previously a law enforcement officer in West Point, has been with CPD since December 2015, city records indicate.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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