A New York correction officer has been suspended without pay and is facing termination after he posted a meme to Facebook mocking the victims of the Tops supermarket shooting in Buffalo N.Y on Saturday.
The shooting at the supermarket left 10 people dead and three others injured. Authorities say the gunman, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, drove over 200 miles to the store because it’s located in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Eleven of the 13 people shot were Black.
According to the Washington Post, Gregory Foster II who worked as a correction officer at the Attica Correctional Facility since June of 1997 shared a picture of the store on Facebook with a caption requesting a “clean up” in the aisles.
“Too soon? This should weed out some FB friends,” he wrote in the since deleted post.
“The comments made by this correction officer are despicable, stand in violation of multiple Department rules, and will not be tolerated,” the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in a statement. “This vile posting does not represent the morals and values of the thousands of staff members in the Department.”
The department says it will be seeking termination of Foster and he may face criminal prosecution.
Ten people reacted to the post with a ‘laughing’ or ‘thumbs up’ emoji. The president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association Michael Powers said “a small handful of members” also “joined and commented on the post with ‘laugh [emoji],” according to The Post.
Powers said the union would ensure that members receive “due process” but they do not support their actions.
