A Santa Rosa Sheriff’s deputy, recorded by neighbors in a video that went viral of him detaining a young, disabled Milton man for not responding to the officer’s commands, was suspended for three days for conduct unbecoming a member of law enforcement.
The information was obtained from a public information request to the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office.
The department’s Internal Affairs (IA) investigation found that Deputy Zachary MacPherson violated the sheriff’s office policy of Standard of Conduct/Integrity, which states members should not engage in any conduct that constitutes conduct unbecoming a member or any act that is likely to adversely affect the discipline, good order, or reputation of the agency or that tends to compromise the integrity of the member.
“There are reasons behind everything, but they don’t necessarily justify it,” MacPherson said to the IA investigator. “I did wrong.”
The Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office said the level of discipline was taken in accordance with the agency’s discipline policy for the violations sustained in the investigation.
MacPherson wrote a letter of apology to the young man’s family, the community, and the department for his conduct.
It was included in the public record’s request for information about the case, but there’s no indication who received it.
“I allowed my emotions to get the better of me,” MacPherson wrote. “I allowed myself to get angry, and I displayed behavior I am entirely ashamed of!”
Video of Santa Rosa Deputy incident went viral
The incident happened on Jan. 29, 2025 on Julia Drive in Milton.
Two neighbors across the street from 20-year-old Aleczander “Zander” Cash say he had just returned from walking his younger brother home from the school bus stop and was checking the mail when MacPherson pulled up in his patrol car and saw Cash standing in the middle of the neighborhood road, looking at his phone.
MacPherson said he yelled for Cash, who was wearing a black hoodie over his head, to “come here” and talk to the deputy, but the youth walked away from him. MacPherson later learned that Cash was wearing headphones under the hoodie and didn’t hear the deputy because he was listening to music.
MacPherson told the IA investigator he wanted to warn him it wasn’t safe to stand in the road, but that Cash refused to acknowledge or respond to his command.
Neighbors and MacPherson say the deputy ordered him to stop several more times, but Cash kept walking toward his home.
MacPherson said he thought Cash was ignoring him and he was suspicious of his behavior.
Neighbors, who took video of what came next as it unfolded, knew Cash was unable to hear the deputy.
Cash’s mother, Emily Cash, says her son has high functioning attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is mildly autistic. He wears the hoodie and the headphones constantly because listening to music helps him focus.
The neighbors said it appeared to them that MacPherson became angry when Cash walked back into his house and shut and locked the door.
They said MacPherson pounded on the door demanding that Cash open it or he would get a warrant.
When he did open the door, the neighbors say MacPherson grabbed Cash hard enough that they could hear the tussle when he aruptly manhandled him to the ground.
Cash said the deputy tore his shirt during the incident.
One of the neighbors, Mahlia McGruder, started recording after MacPherson had Cash on the ground and put him in handcuffs.
In the video, both neighbors can be heard yelling and cursing at the deputy that he was being recorded.
They told the News Journal they were outraged at what they believed was a violation of the youth’s rights and an unwarranted response on the deputy’s part.
MacPherson can be heard yelling back at them.
He told Internal Affairs he was already “nervous” about Cash’s behavior and that the neighbors’ yelling distracted and rattled him during what was already a tense situation.
“The neighbors across the road were screaming at the top of their lungs. I remember hollering something at them, ‘If you keep hollering, you’re going to be the ones in handcuffs,” MacPherson told the sergeant. “They said something to me about being recorded and I said something along the lines of ‘I don’t give a f–k if you’re recording me, I’m recording me.’”
Cash was detained but not arrested once MacPherson realized it was a “massive misunderstanding.”
The neighbor’s video went viral racking up millions of views on social media.
Sheriff Bob Johnson ordered an internal affairs investigation into MacPherson’s conduct.
“I regret allowing myself to get angry,” MacPherson told the investigating sergeant. “I regret the way I talked to the neighbors. I regret the way I talked to Aleczander, at one point. I wasn’t yelling or screaming or being abusive to him, but I said some things that were not courteous, that I didn’t have to say, and I regret that. I remember watching that video and that’s not the person I want to be, that’s not the person I believe I am.”
What the Santa Rosa deputy’s body camera footage shows
Body camera footage of the incident shows MacPherson asking Cash to step outside when he answered the door, but the youth asked, ‘Why?’ and ‘What’s going on?’ several times without complying.
MacPherson then grabs him, pulls him from the doorway, and quickly heaves the young man to the ground, handcuffing him while Cash says “What’s going on?” and repeatedly asks “Can I call my mom?”
A set of headphones can be seen hanging from Cash’s head and then the headphones fall to the ground.
Cash insists he wasn’t “doing anything wrong” and offers to let the deputy hear that he was just listening to music.
Although neighbors said they saw MacPherson put his knee in Cash’s back and throw him onto the sidewalk leading to their home, MacPherson said that is not true.
He said he took Cash down on the grass and utilized a “simple full mount” procedure with both knees on either side of him. Cash has titanium rods in his back from scoliosis.
“I wasn’t attempting to hurt anybody,” MacPherson told the sergeant. “I was trying to pull him from the home and get him in handcuffs and under control.”
He also told the IA investigator that the neighbors’ version of events is “totally inaccurate” and he said they “still deliberately posted lies on social media.”
Emily Cash, eventually arrived on scene. She asked MacPherson why he stopped her son and pressed him about the possibility that he was “profiling” him because he had on a hoodie.
Emily told the News Journal she was worried because although Zander does not appear Hispanic, his younger brother is Hispanic.
“So, you didn’t stop him because he had a hood on in the middle of this (warm) weather? You stopped him because he was in the middle of the road?” Emily asked. “I was thinking that you were profiling him or y’all are looking for somebody who matches his description.”
MacPherson apologized to her for the confusion, but said it was “a perfect storm of events” that led to the incident.
Cash family response
Cash family attorney, Michael Mann, says while they are glad corrective action has been taken, the family was not made aware of MacPherson’s apology letter.
They said they are still looking for satisfactory answers as to why MacPherson pursued Zander in the first place, and why the officer’s initial reaction was to blame Zander for misconduct.
“Our community should not have a deputy with anger issues patrolling neighborhoods and stopping children at their school bus stops,” Mann said. “The Cash family feels like they’ve been left in the dark. We’re still moving forward and have not received the answers we’ve been looking for, but we will get them soon enough.”
According to sheriff’s office records, MacPherson was disciplined for two prior incidents.
He received a written reprimand in December of 2023 for failing to take his agency vehicle for an inspection more than two weeks after a crash.
He also received a written reprimand In March of 2024 for a preventable crash caused when he failed to yield to traffic and hit a car.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: ‘I did wrong.’ Santa Rosa deputy who flung autistic Milton man to ground suspended
Reporting by Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
