North Carolina Cop Resigns After Brake Check Video Goes Viral

This morning we saw a North Carolina officer brake check a South Carolina driver into a rear-end collision. Now the officer has resigned, and claims he was baited into the crash.

The video shows Deputy Craig Culpepper of North Carolina's Onslow County Sheriff's department brake-checking South Carolina driver Chad Walton into a rear-end accident. In the video Culpepper is first seen blocking Walton in the left lane. Walton passes on the right, Culpepper catches up, passes on the right as well, and then aggressively brakes into Walton's bumper.

The officer was identified by WWAY3 News from the South Carolina accident report. Culpepper told WWAY3 that he was baited by Walton, who rode up behind him and flashed his lights at him before the beginning of the now-viral video, currently at 267,183 views.

"I fell for it hook, line and sinker," stated Culpepper.

WWAY3 reports that South Carolina police are familiar with Walton, who has a reputation among them for baiting cops into bad situations on video. Walton only has one video uploaded to YouTube, so we cannot see if he's had any other run-ins with the police.

While speaking with WWAY3, Culpepper stated that he chose to resign, even though Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown offered him the chance to stay on as a detention officer. He also pointed out that he is a father of four and was returning from a 40 hour K-9 training course at the time of the incident.

The Sheriff's office stated that the damage to Culpepper's cruiser would not cost more than $100 to fix. Culpepper said that he hoped his department would pay to repair Walton's truck, thought he amount of damage is unknown.

Culpepper told WWAY3 that he wished he could have told his side of the story before the video came out, while WWAY3 notes that his department did not take or return any of their numerous approaches for comment in the past day.

Photo Credit: Chad Walton/YouTube