By Victor Omondi
After breaking the blue wall of silence by reporting a white officer for his racial comments, Richmond had to endure hostility in his workplace before he eventually resigned.
It all started back in 2016 when then Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Richmond, Black, and his fellow deputy Tyler Kullman were having a chat after answering a phone call together. Moments later, Kullman, who had connected his phone to his car’s Bluetooth speaker, received a call.
“You ready to kill some ni–ers tonight, or what?” the caller asked Kullman.
Richmond was sitting in his squad car, which was just next to Kullman’s, and he overheard the conversation. The Black deputy was bothered by the racial comments he heard from the call for a long time, even though the caller, Sgt. Jeffrey Thurman, with whom he worked closely, explained that he referred to the “inner city” Blacks who “riot and loot.”