HOUSTON \u2013 KPRC 2 obtained civil service records showing a Chicago police officer helped trigger the investigation that ultimately led to a Houston police officer\u2019s indefinite suspension over videos containing racial slurs that later went viral online.<\/p>\n
Houston Police Officer Ashley Gonzalez was indefinitely suspended by Chief J. Noe Diaz Jr. on April 24 after an Internal Affairs investigation into videos she posted on social media. <\/p>\n
According to disciplinary records, the investigation began after Chicago Police Department Officer M. Bazan contacted HPD\u2019s Community Engagement Unit regarding videos Gonzalez posted to her Instagram story. <\/p>\n
Bazan, who served with Gonzalez in the U.S. Marine Corps, told investigators she and other members of their former platoon were offended by the videos and believed Gonzalez was \u201csharing her hate for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Records show Bazan later spoke with an HPD sergeant and reported that Gonzalez had made disparaging comments about African Americans on social media. <\/p>\n
The suspension letter states investigators obtained three videos and photographs from Gonzalez\u2019s Instagram account as part of the investigation. HPD alleges Gonzalez made repeated racial slurs throughout the videos and stated she was going to arrest someone based on their race while on duty. The department also cited a statement in which Gonzalez allegedly said that if an African American person appeared on one of her 911 calls the next day, they were \u201cgoing to jail.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to the records, Gonzalez acknowledged during her Internal Affairs interview that the Instagram account belonged to her and admitted posting the videos.<\/p>\n
The department concluded Gonzalez violated multiple policies, including standards governing professionalism, conduct, discrimination, social media use and Brady\/Michael Morton Act disclosure requirements. HPD argued the comments damaged public trust, harmed the department\u2019s reputation and raised concerns about Gonzalez\u2019s ability to serve as an impartial law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese videos have been widely disseminated on several social media platforms, including both local and nationwide media platforms,\u201d Diaz wrote in the suspension letter. The department noted one local social media platform reported the videos had been viewed more than 1.2 million times.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez appealed the discipline three days after her suspension. In her appeal, she argued the allegations were \u201cnot wholly true,\u201d the charges were not legally sufficient and the punishment did not fit the alleged conduct. She is seeking reinstatement, back pay and benefits. <\/p>\n
Records show Gonzalez elected to have her case heard by an independent hearing examiner rather than the Firefighters\u2019 and Police Officers\u2019 Civil Service Commission.<\/p>\n
A hearing was originally scheduled for June 5, but KPRC 2 has learned it has since been postponed until August.<\/p>\n
The Houston Police Officers\u2019 Union president Doug Griffith said Gonzalez opted to have an attorney outside of the union to represent her.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 KPRC 2 obtained civil service records showing a Chicago police officer helped trigger the investigation that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,118062,118066,118065,118063,118064],"class_list":["post-330351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-police-internal-affairs","tag-internal-affairs-investigation","tag-law-enforcement-accountability","tag-police-disciplinary-action","tag-public-trust-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}