ORLANDO, Fla. – Body camera footage has prompted new calls for an Orlando police officer to resign.
In a video from May 2017, Officer Robert Schellhorn is seen trying to clear a crowd of patrons at closing time outside the Parliament House on Orange Blossom Trail, but it's what he's heard calling the patrons that has some calling for his ousting.
"Typically, Sunday nights are just busy, but all these (expletive) savages that have (expletive) come out," Schellhorn is heard telling another officer.
"Time to go, savages. Go," he's heard saying.
"I don't see a white person in sight when he says, 'It's time to go, savages,'" TJ Legacy-Cole said.
Legacy-Cole obtained the body camera footage through an open records request with the Orlando Police Department.
"(This is) in the LGBTQ community, and you have somebody calling them savages?" Legacy-Cole asked. "That's alarming, and someone doesn't need to be an officer in my estimation."
In August 2017, News 6 reported Schellhorn used his personal Facebook page to write what some called racial slurs.
"What exactly are the 'black rights' that these useless savages are standing up for?" Shellhorn wrote. "Do black folks somehow have different or greater rights than everyone else?"
Shellhorn denied his comments were racist, but they still resulted in a two-week suspension from the force.
On Wednesday, News 6 asked Orlando Police Chief John Mina about the incident at Parliament House. He said Schellhorn was suspended for that incident, as well, and ordered to take sensitivity training.
"I think that he has definitely learned his lesson from what I've heard," Mina said. "I would be shocked if we ever had any incident like that again."
Legacy-Cole is not the only one calling for Schellhorn to resign. The Orlando Police Citizen's Review Board is also calling for the officer to leave.
The board is currently in the process of drafting a letter to the police department outlining the reasons why. They're expected to approve it next month.
