By Craig Anderson

WILMINGTON — A former Wilmington police officer has been convicted of four crimes, including a felony, for an excessive force incident that took place in September 2021, Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced today.

A New Castle County jury found Samuel Waters guilty today of felony first-degree tampering with public records, falsifying business records, third-degree assault and official misconduct.

The Division of Civil Rights & Public Trust first opened its investigation into Waters after discovering footage of a Sept. 21, 2021 incident in which he repeatedly forced a man’s head against a plexiglass window, causing lacerations and bruising, the news release said.

The incident came to DCRPT’s attention after surveillance video of the arrest went viral, the AG said.

Wilmington Police Department supervisors and investigators informed DCRPT that Waters had failed to turn his body worn camera on when he should have (and regularly failed to do so), that he had lied in official documentation of the incident, and that just 9 days prior he was involved in another excessive force incident wherein he used his nightstick to repeatedly apply downward pressure on the back of a victim’s neck, pushing their face into the back of a vehicle and causing injuries, the AG said.

Wilmington Police Department’s Use of Force instructor informed DCRPT that the force Waters employed was against policy and inconsistent with how WPD officers are trained, the news release said.

Waters will be sentenced by a Superior Court judge later this summer and faces a potential sentence of 0 to 8 years in prison.