A video, posted to Facebook on Thursday night, revealed about one minute of an argument between an armed off-duty police captain and several men.
Capt. Richard Foster, of the Nitro Police Department, confronted the men as he held a handgun at his side.
"You're not going to talk to my mother like that - I promise you right now," he said to the men.
Foster, 49, turned himself in to deputies Friday after they obtained a misdemeanor warrant for brandishing, according to a news release from the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office.
The confrontation took place on Berry Hills Drive, near South Charleston, according to the release.
Neither the men nor the woman who recorded the confrontation would make a statement after deputies arrived, the release states.
Foster will remain on administrative leave while an internal investigation into the incident is conducted, said Chief Bobby Eggleton, who took over leadership of the department last week.
Eggleton said the captain started his service at the department more than 10 years ago. Foster could not be reached for comment Friday.
"He has been relieved of his police weapons, vehicle and police identification," Eggleton said in an statement to reporters.
Throughout the video, the men repeatedly tell Foster their argument was being recorded. "I don't care," he responds.
Bystander Daniella DiGenova said the men are her in-laws. She sat in a truck and recorded the incident as it unfolded.
DiGenova said Foster's mother tried to stop the men as they placed a mobile home onto a woman's property. The woman's last trailer had burned down, DiGenova said.
The mother was concerned with zoning and permitting, DiGenova said. Foster then joined the confrontation, and DiGenova scrambled to find her cellphone.
She said neither Foster nor the men had final say about whether the mobile home should be delivered.
"If they wanted to talk to anyone about it," she said, "it should have been the owners of the property."
Foster later walked away, the handgun still at his side, and one of the men said he soon would file charges.
"I don't give a damn who's a cop - that'll be his badge," he said during the recording.
Reach Giuseppe Sabella at giuseppe.sabella@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @Gsabella on Twitter.