GARY (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Gary Mayor Jerome Prince is fighting a decision by the Gary Fire Civil Service Commission to reinstate a firefighter candidate who displayed a gun during an argument in a Subway restaurant.
The probationary firefighter candidate, Louis Brown, had been hired about five weeks before the argument with a juvenile employee at the Subway.
The city said he was wearing a sweatshirt with the fire department logo and lifted it up, showing the employee a handgun in his waistband and saying something like, “you don’t know what I’m capable of.”
The Gary Fire Chief Sean O’Donnell, investigated the incident and decided Brown would be fired for “behavior unbecoming a firefighter candidate.”
The Board of Public Works and Safety, consisting of mayoral appointees, upheld the firing. But then the Fire Civil Service Commission reinstated Brown, over the city’s objection. That body is made up of mayoral appointees, common council members and members of the fire department.
It should be noted that there’s some politics involved here and differing opinions about authority. The city is asking a judge to decide who has the authority.
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