An episode of NBC’s “Dateline: What Happened to Anton Black?” explores the nation’s harsh racial and police realities through the tragic death of a black kid in 2018. Since Anton died while being detained close to his family’s house in Greensboro, Maryland, there is a reason this case has been frequently likened to that of George Floyd (2020). We now have the information you need to learn more about Thomas Webster, the main officer involved, with a focus on both his damaged career and his current position.
Thomas Webster: Who is He?
Although Thomas Webster IV was widely criticized after Anton Black died in September 2018, the neighborhood had been questioning his actions for months. That’s because, despite having publicly fought a second-degree assault accusation a few years earlier, he was hired by the Greensboro Police Department in February of the same year. It was in 2013 when the then-Dover corporal (Delaware) was legally charged with fracturing the jaw of an unarmed black man during a gunpoint arrest by kicking him once in the face.
Despite dashcam footage of the whole event, a jury found Thomas not guilty in December 2015. However, the department quickly stated that Thomas’ employment, which was set to expire in June 2016, would not be renewed. He was given a total of $230,000 in severance compensation in exchange for being put on administrative leave and told never to apply for a job with the Dover government. Even though Thomas was prohibited from entering local police structures or getting in touch with any officers, it took him only two years to find employment in Greensboro.
Thomas was appointed to his position as a Maryland official in April 2018, not long after the Town Manager named him the “best-qualified” candidate because he had no prior record because he had been declared innocent. So, regrettably, it took Anton Black’s dying just five months later to reveal important details of his ten-year employment in Dover, including nearly 30 use of excessive force write-ups. In the officer’s application for state-wide certification, these cases reportedly weren’t even alluded to, much less fully clarified, to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.
Thomas Webster is currently where?
Before the Maryland Police Commission permanently decertified Thomas Webster on July 26, 2019, there was a thorough examination into his past after all of its details began to surface. After Anton’s death (around January), he was placed on administrative leave; nonetheless, it wasn’t until July that he was completely barred from acting in any capacity as a law enforcement official. But it’s important to note that Thomas is simply facing a federal civil case brought against him by Anton’s family; he hasn’t been detained or accused in relation to anything.
Thomas has since chosen to keep his distance from the public spotlight, therefore we don’t know much about him when it comes to his current whereabouts. It has been reported that he is back in Delaware and employed by the state in maintenance, but it is still unknown exactly what that job entails, where he is located, or anything else about his personal life. The Black family is tenaciously pursuing some responsibility, but Thomas doesn’t seem to have talked to anyone about what happened on that fatal evening of September 15, 2018.