A police officer resigns after firing a black man who picks up garbage. But leave before he is disciplined.

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The incident began on March 1 when Boulder police officer John Smyly approached Zayd Atkinson as he cleaned garbage outside his townhouse complex.

Atkinson was sitting in a partially enclosed patio with a private sign in front of the complex where he lived. Smyly claimed that he was trying to determine if he had the right to be there.

According to the city, Atkinson allegedly told him that he was working and living in the building – and gave him his student card – but Smyly stopped him for further investigation.

Then he asked for a backup, saying that the person was "uncooperative and did not want to pose blunt object", according to the city.

This blunt object was a waste collector.

A report of internal affairs investigation says that Atkinson then went away. Smyly took out his electric pistol, then his handgun and directed it down, but not towards Atkinson.

The viewer video went online and prompted immediate reactions. Many of them cited it as the latest example of racial profiling by the police. A few days later, the police department opened an internal investigation into the incident.

Officer resigns but will receive $ 69,000

The investigation, made public on Thursday and available here, found no evidence of racial profiling, but Smyly had flouted two police department policies: it violated the police's authority and the police's confidence. public and the department's code of conduct.

The city says in a written statement that these findings "would likely have resulted in the suspension or possibly termination" of Smyly.

But he reached an agreement with the city of Boulder before being sanctioned. Smyly resigns but "will exhaust" his paid leave. This means that the city will pay him about $ 69,000 by February 9, 2020, his last day of work.

Municipal officials believe this is the best solution because the police service's collective agreement triggers a disciplinary appeal process that they say would cancel Smyly's dismissal. In other words, Smyly would be back in the force.

"The settlement has enabled the city to provide information to the community more quickly," said Patrick von Keyserling, director of communications at Boulder, in a statement obtained by CNN. "This allowed Officer Smyly to leave the policeman career."

The lawyer says they plan to sue Boulder

Atkinson's attorney does not buy that and speaks harshly for the city of Boulder. Siddhartha Rathod thinks that Smyly profiled his client in a racial way, despite the findings of the internal investigation.

And because Boulder refuses to discipline the policeman, he sues the city.

"Boulder left us no other option," Rathod told CNN. "Boulder had neither the ability nor the will to eliminate racism and properly discipline his officer."

Rathod says that they plan to file a complaint after getting all the records from the city and the police.

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