Arkansas Deputy Gets His Karma After Racist Video Spreads Online

Just months after graduating from the police academy, an Arkansas deputy was caught on video spewing racial slurs while off duty. Now, he's facing the consequences of his actions, and the department is taking serious action.

Although the Yell County Sheriff’s Department did not name the cop involved, he was later identified as Jaxon Arndt by KLRT Reporter Neal Zeringue. It's unclear who filmed or posted the video that cost Arndt his job, but word got back to his supervisors, and they responded quickly.

"It has been brought to our attention of a video surfacing of one of our own Deputy Sheriffs using obscene and racist language while off-duty," a statement by Yell County Sheriff R. Nick Gault began. "This type of behavior is deplorable and not at all in accordance with the values, ethics, and mission of a commissioned law enforcement officer in the state of Arkansas."

In the racist video, Arndt is seen sitting in the passenger seat of a truck, according to KARK. That's when he began pointing what appears to be a loaded gun at the floor between his feet and started yelling for the imaginary person to "get ready for ole police academy training." Arndt continued yelling, "Get down you f—in n—r! Stop resisting."

The department did not share the video in their Facebook statement, but Sheriff Gault said they took action immediately and fired the former cop. Before joining the department, Arndt was a Yell County jailer. He also completed a 56-hour jail standards course in 2023, according to Zeringue.

In Yell County-- where the population is around 20,000-- residents reacted to the shocking news of Arndt's racist video. "It ain’t no good man... There are not a lot of Black people over here," Mike Beasley said of the video.

Isai Murillo told KLRT, "As a brown guy, it’s pretty scary. I just want to see the department do better. You know, make us feel a lot safer than it already is."

After Arndt's firing, the Sheriff promised to implement new practices. "Moving forward, we will be enrolling our Deputies in additional mandatory training pertaining to racial discrimination and social media behaviors," he said.

“We hope to continue to provide the best law enforcement service possible to our communities, far from the actions exhibited in this video,” Gault continued.