Written by Incident: In May 2018, off-duty SAPD officer Justin Ayars assaulted his fiancée, Krista Cooper-Nurse, during a violent domestic dispute. The attack left Cooper-Nurse with shattered orbital and sinus bones and other injuries
. Ayars was later accused of beating her with a rock after a night out, according to internal records and body-cam footage of the aftermath
.
Outcome: Ayars was fired months after the assault and appealed his termination. Unusually, an arbitrator upheld his firing – the only SAPD firing in 2019 that was not overturned
. This meant Ayars did not get his job back, a decision city officials welcomed given the severity of the incident
. No criminal charge was mentioned, but the sustained termination ended Ayars’ law enforcement career at SAPD.