The Kaplan Police Department in Kaplan, Louisiana, revealed earlier this month that officer Steven Aucoin was terminated from the force after Kaplan Police Chief Joshua Hardy was made aware of the cop’s posts on Facebook.
According to local news outlet KLFY, which broke the story, the comments in question were posted under the Facebook livestream of Democratic Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ news conference on May 15.
One netizen on the social media platform commented that COVID-19 was the result of a “virus that was created to kill all the blacks.”
In an apparent response, Aucoin posted, “Well it didn’t work,” before adding “how unfortunate.”
The police chief sat down with KLFY and told the outlet that the decision to fire Aucoin was made after an internal investigation was conducted on the entire thread.
“We’re held to a higher standard than normal civilians, so you got to watch what you do, you got to watch what you say. You can’t just go and post anything you want on social media,” Hardy told the outlet.
“There were some comments that were further up that was not suitable for a police officer to put up on Facebook,” he added.
NBC News noted that Aucoin previously worked for the Kaplan Police Department for an eight-month period and had been back on the force for three months before he was fired on May 15. It’s not clear why he previously left the department.
