RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — The city of Riviera Beach fired a police captain and sergeant last year when a suspect ended up badly beaten.
Officials said they violated body camera policy, but Sgt. Brian Jackson already has his job back. Now, Capt. Edgar Foster wants to be reinstated.
The video recorded in June 2019 showed a swarm of Riviera Beach police officers converging on Anthony Goldwire, an accused criminal on the run.
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Police Capt. Edgar Foster yelled the words, "Go dead, go dead, go dead, go dead."
These words cost Foster his job after a two-year internal investigation.
For the first time since his firing, Foster is speaking out and telling Contact 5 that his words were taken out of context.
"When we made contact with the suspect, we had a suspect that is surrendering," Foster said. "I placed myself between the suspect and the K-9. That was to prevent the suspect from getting bit."
Foster was also the chief K-9 trainer for the Riviera Beach Police Department. At the scene, he said two K-9s were poised to attack and bite Goldwire.
"So, when I said, 'Go dead,' I told the K-9 handler, 'Go dead. Go dead,' meaning for him, 'It's over for us,'" Foster said. "It wasn't for the way the narrative said that I heard that I told all the officers to 'Go dead,' to turn off their body cameras. No, that is far from the truth."
WPTV asked why the officers shut their body cameras off after the "go dead" command.
"It was the canine handler that I was referring to," Foster said. "That's the first time I used the terminology."
Contact 5 looked at several body-camera videos and did not find any video that shows any officer striking Goldwire, who was hospitalized after the incident.
Earlier that night, Riviera Beach police Sgt. Brian Jackson saw Goldwire run a stop sign.
Goldwire stopped at his grandmother's home and got out of his car.
When Jackson ordered Goldwire to get back into his car, Goldwire drove off, sideswiping Jackson's cruiser and injuring the sergeant's hand.
After police dogs tracked down Goldwire and cornered him, the suspect appeared to surrender at the time Foster gave his "go dead" command.
Foster said he needed to help get the agitated police dogs back to their SUVs and was more than a block away from Goldwire when he was punched by Jackson.
Contact 5 could not locate any video of an officer striking Goldwire who was hospitalized after the incident.
Jackson is back on the job and received back pay after an arbitrator's ruling. However, Foster faces more obstacles.
Unlike Jackson, who is a member of a police union, Foster was a manager and may have to bring his case to court.
"I should get my job back. I deserve it," Foster said.