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by ANDY FANCHER
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A white South Carolina police officer who made national headlines in 2020 for repeatedly shouting “n***er” during an on-duty altercation remains armed and employed in law enforcement, according to state records.
Chadwick “Chad” Walker, a relatively new addition to the Springdale Police Department, hasn’t gone far since being terminated from the neighboring Columbia Police Department at a time when protests were erupting nationwide over police misconduct.
The 43-year-old’s career-altering outburst occurred on Aug. 29, 2020, when he entered a bar in Columbia’s Five Points neighborhood to enforce a mandatory closing time ordered by governor Henry McMaster in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As body-worn camera footage later revealed, Walker forcefully cleared the bar, ordering its patrons out onto the sidewalk two minutes past the 11:00 p.m. EDT curfew.
In the process, a black customer wearing a white T-shirt depicting the Confederate flag on fire said something inaudible, prompting Walker to respond, “you’re a little color-blind, sir.”
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After herding everyone outside, the heavyset officer’s demeanor grew even denser when he confronted a white patron who took issue with him talking to “people of color as if they are less than human.”
“The people of color?” Walker replied in a mocking tone, pointing toward a black man from inside the bar. “The gentleman right there that called me a n***er?”
Despite a crowd of mostly white people outside the bar reacting in disbelief, Walker doubled down by repeating the slur and insisting he had every right to say it.
“You want me to say it again?” Walker shouted toward the black man, who denied saying the word and was berated by the officer as he walked away. “All you’re doing is calling me ignorant! That’s what that word means! If you’d like to call yourself ignorant, keep saying it!”
Further escalating the situation as fellow officers stood by and did nothing, Walker argued with the crowd for about three minutes, asking rhetorical questions like, “he can say it to me, but I can’t say it to him?” and adding that he was “leading by example.”
Walker’s outburst was captured from multiple angles and posted on social media within hours, prompting an apology from Columbia Police Chief William H. “Skip” Holbrook the next day.
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“It is evident the actions of Sgt. Walker were a clear failure to fulfill the expectations and standards of our department,” Holbrook said in a release announcing Walker’s suspension without pay pending a disciplinary command review. “The repetition of the racial slur and failure to de-escalate the situation were inexcusable.”
News of Walker’s outburst and subsequent suspension was soon syndicated by outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Post, The Hill, Daily Mail, TMZ and Vice, likely contributing to Walker’s termination within 48 hours of him uttering the slur multiple times on camera.
“When setbacks occur and mistakes are made, we must be willing to acknowledge them, fix them, learn from them, and continue to move forward together,” Holbrook said in a follow-up release indicating his department had handled Walker’s termination appropriately.
What Holbrook failed to mention, and what local outlets failed to uncover, was that Walker was terminated for a violation of agency policy (.pdf) rather than misconduct, leaving him certified and eligible to continue policing in South Carolina… which he did.
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Holbrook was aware of Walker’s eligibility to remain certified, according to a procedural background check from the South Congaree Police Department, which states he was personally contacted during the vetting process before the department hired Walker in January 2021.
It would take Walker another year to regain the rank of sergeant, this time with South Congaree — a promotion made publicly and with the praise of Springdale officer David Jordan, who was arrested in April 2025 by agents with the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) following allegations that he strangled a man in custody.
“Congratulations brother,” Jordan wrote in a Facebook comment approximately three years before being booked into the Lexington County Detention Center on charges of misconduct in office and third-degree assault and battery. “Great to have you right next door sir.”
Walker would go on to serve a total of three years and three months with South Congaree before transferring to Springdale in May 2024, where he appears to remain a corporal, unlike Jordan, who traded his uniform for a rap sheet.
Both Walker and his 2020 outburst might have been forgotten indefinitely had FITSNews not observed him attending last month’s retirement party for embattled South Congaree Police Chief Steven Jonas, who left office in September 2025 amid a SLED investigation into allegations of excessive force.
We’ll let our readers draw their own conclusions as to whether there’s a pattern here.
Unlike Jordan, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office declined to prosecute Jonas following his retirement, according to a letter from the agency stating it would “not maintain any records of investigatory activity.”
As FITSNews has repeatedly documented, the recycling of officers like Walker is nothing new in South Carolina, where admitted drug dealers and chronic perverts linger on taxpayer-funded payrolls long after the public stops paying attention.
Write to Andrew Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
(Dynal Nolan/FITSNews)
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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3 comments
It doesn’t surprise me that South Congaree and Springdale would hire a police officer of the caliber of this POS.
Doesn’t surprise me at all.
I grew up in that area.
Nobody else seemed concerned that this guy was happily enforcing an unconstitutional ordinance enacted by a bunch of tyrants on city council over an exaggerated plague? His use of an offensive word, while not great judgment even in the context of repeating what was said to him, was not near as troubling as his willingness to enforce the stupid curfew hours over the Covid hoax.
Leave it to fits to try and get some clicks from an old story that appears that the officer didn’t do anything criminal or his certification would have been pulled.