When the FBI seized Antioch police officers’ professional and private cellphones, agents found chains of text messages exchanged between as many as 45 Antioch officers. The texts contained racial slurs and described violence officers inflicted against suspects, court records show. The N-word and terms describing Black suspects as “gorillas,” “monkeys,” and circus animals were used in text messages written and received by officers and APD supervisors.

Officer Eric Rombough, who played soccer professionally before joining APD, bragged about how hard he kicked a young Black man in the head, court records containing the text messages show. Rombough wrote in one text, “He got his a** whooped in the back yard and I field goal kicked his head. I tried to knock him unconscious.”

In another text message from 2022, Rombough wrote, “Bottom line it doesn’t matter some gorilla killed another gorilla.”