Three Wilmington, North Carolina police officers have been fired after a video recording exposed them of using racist slurs and having conversations about “slaughtering” Black people. The Wilmington Police Department fired Cpl. Jessie Moore and officers Kevin Piner and Brian Gilmore on Tuesday (June 24), after an investigation revealed their comments.

According to investigation documents released by the police department, the video recording was obtained in a video audit during a monthly inspection to review footage from ex-officer Piner’s car. Upon listening to two conversations between Piner and Moore and Piner and Gilmore, a sergeant contacted the department administrator and described their comments as “extremely racist.”

The Charlotte Observer reports that during the video’s first conversation between Piner and Gilmore, Piner criticized the Wilmington Police Department for “kneeling down with the Black folks.”

Later on, the video also included a phone call conversation between Piner and Moore, where Moore used racial slurs to describe a Black woman and called her a “negro.” Moore also reportedly used racial and homophobic slurs to describe an unidentified Black magistrate.

Elsewhere in their conversation, Piner said he felt a civil war was needed to “wipe [Black people] off the (expletive) map.”

“That’ll put them back about four or five generations,” he told Moore.

Piner also said he had prepared for a potential civil war by buying a new assault rifle.

“We are just going to go out and start slaughtering them (expletive) Blacks,” he told Moore. “I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.”

In the clip, Moore could be heard saying he wouldn’t do that and calling Piner “crazy.”

Although all three officers have since admitted to making these comments, they denied being racist and instead blamed the conversation on their stressful jobs and the current anti-police brutality protests.

In addition to firing the officers, Police Chief Donny Williams said the investigation will be reviewed by the district attorney’s office to determine whether they showed racial bias toward anyone they’ve arrested or committed any crimes during their careers.

“When I first learned of these conversations, I was shocked, saddened and disgusted,” Williams said at a press conference on Wednesday. “There is no place for this behavior in our agency or our city and it will not be tolerated.”

Williams will also notify the North Carolina Criminal Justice Training and Standards Commission about their comments and recommend that they never be rehired.