Ex-Atlanta officer allegedly shouted racial slur, pointed gun during road rage incident

A former Atlanta police officer was accused of aggravated assault and other crimes after he allegedly pointed his gun at a Black woman and called her a racial slur during a road rage incident earlier this year, according to records obtained Friday by NBC News.

Robert Malone, who is white and still worked for the Atlanta Police Department when the May 5 encounter occurred, was also accused of violation of oath by a public officer, cruelty to children and possession of a firearm, jail records show.

According to a police report, a woman leaving a shopping center east of downtown Atlanta was turning left when she nearly struck a black Chevrolet Camaro. Malone, who was driving the Camaro, was off-duty but in uniform at the time, a police spokesman said.

The woman told police that the officer honked his horn, yelled a racial slur and said he would “blow her brains out,” according to the report.

The woman and her children, who were also in the car, saw the driver allegedly pointing a gun at them through his windshield, according to the report.

When the woman and her boyfriend approached Malone’s car, he denied pointing his gun and left the scene when they yelled at him, according to the report.

The woman told NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta that the encounter lasted several minutes while they were stuck in traffic. Three of her children were in the car at the time, she told the station.

“That put the biggest fear in them, like just seeing that gun being pointed at them,” she told the station. “And then, my 11-year-old holding my 8-year-old daughter’s head down to protect her, telling her the gun is pointing right here. I cried that night — that hurt.”

The woman, who the station did not name and whose face was not visible in the interview, did not immediately return a message left on a number listed under her name Friday night.

She told the station that she flagged down another officer who was nearby handling an unrelated crash.

Malone later told the officer via radio that he left area because he didn’t want to “infuse” the situation, according to the report.

Malone was booked June 28 and released on bond the following day, jail records show. A police department spokesman declined to comment on the allegations, citing an active investigation.

Charges have not been filed in the case, according to Malone’s lawyer, Brian Tevis. A spokesman for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Malone was hired in September 2009 and resigned from the department July 12, a police spokesman said. He left for “personal reasons completely unrelated to these false allegations,” Tevis said in an email.

Tevis accused the woman and her boyfriend of making “inaccurate and inconsistent claims from the start.”

“Because the matter is still under investigation, all I can say further at this time is we will vigorously fight these false allegations and look forward to the truth coming out,” Tevis said.