LOVELAND — A police sergeant who was placed on administrative leave following the rough arrest of a 73-year-old Colorado woman with dementia has resigned.
The Loveland Police Department announced Wednesday evening that Phil Metzler submitted his resignation amid a disciplinary review.
Police Chief Robert Ticer said in a statement Metzler’s resignation “closes one more chapter of an incident that has tarnished the hard work of the men and women of the Loveland Police Department.”
Then-officer Austin Hopp arrested Karen Garner after she left a store without paying for $13.88 worth of items in June 2020. Police body camera video shows that after she turned away from him, he grabbed her arm and pushed her to the ground. A federal lawsuit that Garner filed, which has since been settled for $3 million, claimed he dislocated her shoulder by shoving her handcuffed left arm forward onto the hood of a patrol car.
Metzler was captured on body camera footage dismissing a passerby’s excessive force concerns. A working phone number for him could not be found Wednesday evening.
Hopp and another officer who responded to help him are being criminally prosecuted for their actions.