A heated city council meeting

What former Springfield police chief Michael Walton said after speaking to the City Council on April 7 remains in dispute, but Walton won’t be banned from future council meetings, Mayor Misty Buscher says.

Walton’s statement during the public comment section of the meeting, in which Walton defended the actions of a white Springfield police officer in the March 27 arrest of a 19-year-old Black woman, sparked a verbal confrontation with Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory.

Gregory, who is Black, stood up and began yelling at Walton, who is white, after Walton had finished his comments, sat down in the audience and comments were exchanged in the crowd.

Walton began yelling back at Gregory, who appeared to be physically restrained by another member of the audience and by Ward 4 Ald. Larry Rockford from walking closer to the audience.

Buscher, after banging her gavel and trying to restore order, abruptly adjourned the meeting with other members of the public waiting their turn to speak.

Facing public criticism for cutting off public comment, Buscher later told Illinois Times that she adjourned the meeting to avoid having “a fistfight in the council chambers.”

The incident was the latest in a string of heated debates involving police use of force and public reactions to related police-worn camera video and videos on social media of interactions between the public and police.

Buscher said an investigation into the April 7 confrontation showed that Walton didn’t violate any council rules for public comment, so her administration won’t take any action to prohibit Walton from addressing the council in the future.

Gregory didn’t respond to Illinois Times’ requests for an interview to get his view of what happened. He said at the beginning of the council’s April 14 committee-of-the-whole meeting that he apologized for “interrupting” the previous week’s meeting.

He said he and the two other members of the council’s Aldermanic Black Caucus “have shown that we do support the police” but have the right to question police behavior.

“At times, the picture is painted that everything is fine, but it’s not fine,” Gregory said. “We really have a lot of work to do with racial tensions in this city. We really, really do.”

Springfield resident Teresa Haley, former president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP, was in the audience at the April 7 meeting. She told Illinois Times that after Walton sat down, she heard Walton call Gregory a racial epithet and a woman seated near him a “cunt.”

After Walton made those comments, Gregory stood up and began yelling at Walton, according to Haley.

Walton told the newspaper that he never called Gregory the N-word and called the woman near him a “runt” and not the obscenity that Haley alleged he said.

“No racial slurs were uttered by me, as I do not use those horrible words,” Walton said. “If someone said I did, they are a liar.”

Buscher told the newspaper that video footage of the council meeting wasn’t clear enough to discern what was said in the audience after Walton’s comments to the council. 

Buscher said Springfield Police Chief Joe Behl asked Gregory whether Gregory heard Walton call him the N-word. The mayor said that according to Behl, Gregory told the chief twice that Gregory didn’t hear the N-word.

Gregory told Behl that Gregory stood up and yelled at Walton because Gregory was “tired of hearing him talk,” she said. Behl wouldn’t comment to the newspaper about his conversations with Gregory.

Walton, 77, who lives in Springfield, was suspended as police chief in 1990 when he became “embroiled in a sex-blackmail scandal,” then removed as chief a few months later and demoted to day-shift sergeant, according to an article in The State Journal-Register.

Now retired, Walton said during the April 7 council meeting that it was wrong for council members to question the actions of police officer Jacob Walter in Walter’s March 27 arrest of Springfield resident Promyss Davis, 19, after a traffic stop near 15th Street and Cornell Avenue.

Behl has defended Walter’s actions, part of which were not captured on bodycam video because police said Davis’ elbow pressed against Walter’s bodycam, causing it to turn off.

A video captured by a citizen and posted on social media showed Walter punching Davis’ head during the arrest.

A news release issued by the police department said Walter “followed his training and established policy in effecting this arrest.” The release also stated that Davis “fled on foot and began actively resisting arrest after Officer Walter attempted to secure her hands … Officer Walter used the lowest level of force necessary to effect this arrest.”

Walton told the council that it’s “disgusting” for some council members “to say it’s OK to resist a lawful arrest.”

Walton said “three or four council members are constantly playing politics” and frequently try to derail initiatives of the mayor. “A couple of you are outstanding actors who need to be in Hollywood,” he said.

Ward 6 Ald. Jennifer Notariano said during the April 7 meeting and after Walton’s comments that his remarks demonstrate why “we’re having problems right now between community relations and the Springfield Police Department.” 

She said some police “feel like you don’t have to answer to anyone on the City Council. … It’s our job to question every person who works for the city.”  

Watch highlight reels from the Springfield City Council meetings (and other governing bodies) at illinoistimes.com/watch-public-meetings.

This article appears in April 9-15, 2026.