A New Jersey firefighter has been fired after he was caught on video tying a noose at work and throwing it at a Black colleague.
According to Atlanta Black Star, Walter Coffey, a longtime firefighter with the Township of Bloomfield, was terminated from the fire department last month following his involvement in the November 2023 incident.
“Though I am limited by New Jersey law regarding details of personnel matters, with reference to the matter of the Bloomfield Fire Department, I can now confirm that the firefighter involved in the November 2023 incident is no longer employed by the Township of Bloomfield,” Bloomfield Mayor Jenny Mundell confirmed in a Facebook post last week. “The situation was handled through the appropriate administrative process, which has now concluded.”
Coffey had been suspended without pay for nearly two years following the incident involving fellow firefighter Patrick Thomas, who is Black. In a $25 million lawsuit, Thomas alleged Coffey repeatedly subjected him to racist harassment during departmental training sessions.
According to the complaint, Coffey first approached his colleague during a rope and knot training, saying, “Thomas, there is a noose upstairs on the table, did you see it?” Roughly a week later, during another training session, Coffey allegedly tied a hangman’s noose and threw it toward Thomas while laughing.
“I want you to figure out what kind of knot this is," Coffey allegedly said.
Surveillance footage confirmed Coffey tied the noose and tossed it in Thomas’s direction in front of other firefighters. Thomas’s lawsuit also alleges Coffey used racial slurs, including the N-word, on multiple occasions in front of other Black firefighters without facing discipline.
Coffey was charged in December 2023 with bias intimidation. A judge later allowed him to enter a pretrial intervention program, which he began in January.
An internal fire department investigation was paused while the criminal case proceeded and resumed in May after the case concluded.
“Bloomfield will not tolerate racism in any form, and our community deserves a workplace and a local government that reflects those values,” Mundell said in a statement.
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