Florida police officer fired after video showed her calling man 'punk' who was calling for help gets her job back

A Florida police officer who was fired last year after an arrest video showed her calling a man who called 911 a “punk” and yelling at him has now been reinstated to her department.

Officer Bethany Guerriero was fired from the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department in September following an internal investigation into the arrest of Ryan Gould, NBC affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach reported.

Gould called police after a man pulled out a gun following an argument between Gould and his wife at their apartment's communal pool, according to a federal court lawsuit filed by Gould in January.

Gould called police to “intervene and ensure his safety,” the lawsuit states.

Guerriero was reinstated this month after “the union forced arbitration and the arbitrator made a binding decision to send her back to work without back pay,” a city spokesman said Wednesday.

She is currently undergoing retraining and will be deployed in the records department, the spokesman said.

Neither Palm Beach Gardens police nor an attorney for Guerriero immediately responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

Eric Rice, a lawyer for Gould, said he was “disappointed that police failed to recognize the significant trauma Ryan suffered.”

“He sought protection when threatened with a firearm and instead of being held at the safety of officers, he was held at gunpoint. We have seen no measures taken to prevent these incidents from occurring again,” the attorney added in a statement Wednesday.

The lawsuit accuses Guerriero of speaking “angry” and “disrespectfully” to Gould during the May 2023 incident, telling him to shut up and making fun of Gould for wearing nail polish on his toes.

Body camera video released by Gould's attorney showed Guerriero pulling out her gun seconds after she arrived and pointing it at Gould after telling him to take his hands out of his pockets.

Gould placed his cell phone on the ground and then lay face down, repeatedly telling Guerriero and another officer that he had not committed a crime and was not the person with the gun.

As the video shows, Guerriero handcuffed Gould and told him he was being held “because you won't listen.”

“This is not a crime,” he replied. “Are your body cameras on? I called you for help because this guy is pointing a gun at me.”

The lawsuit states that Gould was wearing only swim shorts and Crocs and “it was clear that he did not have a weapon.”

At one point in the video, Guerriero can be heard calling Gould a “punk” and seemingly mocking him for his painted nails.

“I'm the one in charge, not you,” she said. “And your blue nail polish, cute.”

When Gould further asked what crime he had committed, Guerriero told him, “Shut up.”

“I don't care. I won't do it. Arrest me,” he said, cursing at the police officer.

In the video, Guerriero told a supervisor that Gould was “agitated” and repeatedly reached into his pockets. Body camera footage and surveillance video released by Gould's attorney show that he only reached into his pocket once to get his cellphone.

Gould was taken to jail but released before his case could be processed, the lawsuit says.