A New York fire captain has retired after being accused of pressuring a black firefighter to attend a party that mocked Juneteenth with racist imagery, the city’s mayor announced on Tuesday. .
Rochester Fire Captain Jeffrey Krywy made the decision “before dismissal proceedings” could begin following a city-led investigation into his alleged misconduct, Mayor Malik Evans said in a statement.
Krywy elected to retire after receiving the “investigation’s determination, requiring him to leave the service,” the mayor said.
The firefighter, Jerrod Jones, filed a Notice of Claim last week signaling his intention to take legal action against the City of Rochester and the Rochester Fire Department over the incident.
In the filing, Jones, a 14-year firefighter veteran, alleged that Krywy pressured him and two other firefighters to attend a private party with racist and misogynistic imagery.
He said he initially felt uncomfortable arriving at the party and noticed a big cut from former President Donald Trump because it was against department rules to attend events. partisan politics, according to the record.
He said Jones “became completely shocked”, however, when he noticed there were two large June 19 celebration flags decorating the lawn with buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken prominently displayed in “an apparent use of the racist trope recycled by fanatics to mock black Americans”.
The filing said someone at the party also appeared to have posed as Monroe County Legislator Rachel Barnhart and acted sexually as the crowd taunted her. Jones could additionally see “pictures of local Democratic politicians on stakes through the grass around the backyard,” according to the filing.
Jones said he raised the issue with a superior following the incident and asked him to address it, according to the filing. He was, however, shocked when he was assigned to work with the same captain for his next shift four days after raising the issue, prompting him to press ahead with his actions.
Nate McMurray, Jones’ attorney, questioned the decision to allow Krywy to retire, telling NBC News in a phone interview on Wednesday, “I don’t know, if you’re not fired for what he did, why are you fired? ?”
“I just don’t think they’re treating this with the level of urgency it deserves,” he said.
McMurray had also interviewed in a Tweeter On Tuesday, the likelihood of Krywy being eligible for a “full pension” after retiring.
“Also, the mayor says they’ve done an investigation. In other words, ‘Everything is fine,'” he said.
“But all is not good,” McMurray said, alleging the mayor has yet to call Jones.
“There are no concrete changes to ensure this never happens again,” he said. “And my client remains at risk, subject to threats and a hostile workplace, just years away from his own well-deserved pension.”
Speaking during a press conference outside Rochester City Hall last Thursday, Jones said the experience “really touched me.”
He said he decided to ‘talk’ about the incident ‘because I have two children who may one day aspire to be firefighters, and I don’t want them to have to go through what I went through. .”
Jones remains on leave after the incident due to emotional distress and fear of retaliation, McMurray said.
In his statement, Evans said “the underlying issues that bring us to today were not created in the last eight months,” while thanking Rochester Fire Department Chief Felipe Hernandez , “for his continued commitment to addressing structural biases and cultural challenges within the RFD.”
He said the city will continue to “share regular updates” on its efforts to “address these longstanding issues in the weeks ahead.”
