A former Broward Sheriff's Office deputy took to YouTube to release a video accusing BSO Sheriff Scott Israel of turning his back on him and making allusions to his becoming "the next Christopher Dorner," the ex-LAPD officer who went on a revenge-motivated shooting rampage in Los Angeles back in February after he was fired from the force.
"I don't know how much more I can take," the former BSO deputy tells the camera in anguish. "I don't want to be the next Christopher Dorner. So I'm praying and asking someone to get involved. Please. God bless you."
The former deputy, Raymond Hicks, was arrested in 2001 on a drug-trafficking case but was acquitted.
"But yet still, even this man that I've known since 1987 turned his back on me and my kids," Hicks says to the camera in the video. "And I'm saying to myself, 'How can you do this to me, Scott?' After everything I've done for you! I worked 12 to 14 hours every single day, and all of a sudden he became the sheriff of Broward County and then he tells me I cannot pass a background.'
On Tuesday, Hicks was walking to his car to go to work as a security guard when a SWAT team jumped out of a van and aimed guns at him, yelling for him to get down on the ground, according to the Sun Sentinel. Hicks' 10-year-old son witnessed the incident, the former BSO deputy claims.
Hicks was taken to Florida Medical Center for observation and held under the Baker Act, Florida's mental health act that detains a person for at least 72 hours who authorities believe will do harm to themselves or others.
The posting of the video, Hicks says, was simply to bring attention to the way BSO treated him after he was acquitted on his drug-trafficking charges. He was fired soon after the case. Hicks claims he was framed by the BSO because he had threatened to come forward about some deputies planting drugs on suspects.
Hicks also says he quit his security job at the time Israel was running for sheriff in order to campaign for him. When Israel got the job, Hicks tried to reapply to the BSO in an administrative position.
He was rejected, so he took to expressing his anger on video. In the video, Hicks says that the Dorner incident in L.A. could have been prevented had the LAPD just listened to the fired officer.
"It was at that time that I told my mom I went and bought an AK with 180 rounds," Hicks says in the video. "I said, 'You might as well get your black dress because I'll tell you right now, I cannot take this no more. These people have literally ruined my life for something I haven't done.' I said, 'How much more can I take, Mom, before I snap?' "
Hicks' mention of Dorner and an AK with 180 rounds is likely what set off the proverbial alarms and hospitalized him under the Baker Act. But judging from the rest of the video, it was probably a harmless -- albeit extremely unwise -- reference brought on by anguish and stress.
Hicks says he doesn't mean anyone harm.
He also mentions his religious faith, his antidrug stance, and his helping troubled people find God in the video.
In 2003, Hicks successfully sued BSO for wrongful termination. The settlement agreement had BSO rescind his termination, allowing him instead to resign. The settlement also paid him $100,000 in back pay.
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