Bartonville leaders silent after viral video shows assistant fire chief use racial slur

PEORIA (25 News Now) - A video circling social media showing Bartonville’s assistant fire chief using a racial slur is gaining attention with more than 100,000 views and hundreds of comments, but village officials remain silent.

25 News made several phone calls and emails to village officials, including the assistant fire chief himself, but there’s been no response.

It’s a video timestamped Janaury 1, 2019. Three years later, it’s gaining attention across social media. In it, Bartonville Assistant Fire Chief and former Trustee Drew Zachman is heard saying the n-word.

The video was reposted on TikTok a few days ago. Between two TikTok videos, they rack up more than 180,000 views and hundreds of comments.

Every village leader was reached out to, and asked if they were aware of the video, and if Zachman was still with the department. There was still no response.

Peoria’s NAACP President Pastor Marvin Hightower says the NAACP condemned the n-word in 2009 at its national convention. Hightower says the organization does not use that word and does not want its employees to use it because it’s offensive and sets back society.

The two TikTok videos can be found by clicking here and here.

25 News never received a response from Fire Chief Mike Chetham dating back to April, when documents showed the chief asked another firefighter, “Haven’t we all responded to a call drunk before?”

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