LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The former assistant police chief of Prospect told a Louisville Metro Police recruit that, if he catches juveniles smoking marijuana, he should “shoot them” if they are black, according to documents released Friday.
Todd Shaw, who resigned from the suburban Louisville department late last year, sent several “highly disturbing racist and threatening Facebook messages” to the recruit, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell wrote in a letter to Prospect Mayor John Evans on Aug. 31.
Shaw had fought to keep the messages private after media outlets requested them under Kentucky’s open records law. Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman ruled this week that the records must be released.
Shaw was initially suspended with pay on Sept. 1. Prospect Police Chief Jeff Sherrard was not in the office Friday and could not be reached for comment.
In an interview, Evans said that after receiving O’Connell’s letter, “the human reaction would be to fire” Shaw, but the department needed to conduct its own investigation.
After Sherrard “began his examination of the messages … it soon became apparent to him” that Shaw had violated police standards, according to a press release sent out by Evans Friday afternoon. Shaw was suspended giving the department “additional time to review the matter.” The city said it followed the disciplinary protocol established by the city’s “Police Officer Bill of Rights.”
When Sherrard later presented the findings to Shaw on Nov. 20, Shaw resigned, Evans said.
Evans said the messages were not sent on city computers or telephones and they find them “abhorrent, disgusting, and, reprehensible,” according to the press release.
“The City of Prospect has zero tolerance for the type of content sent by Shaw,” Evans wrote. “… I want to make it crystal clear: neither the City of Prospect, not its citizens, condone, support or endorses the views expressed by Shaw in these postings/messages.”
Shaw served with LMPD for more than 20 years before joining the Prospect department in 2012. In one of the Facebook messages, the LMPD recruit asked Shaw what to do in a scenario in which he catches three juveniles smoking marijuana.
The question was part of a paper the recruit was writing about “the right thing to do,” according to O’Connell’s letter.
“F— the right thing,” Shaw allegedly responded. “If black shoot them.”
And as for what to tell the parents of the juveniles, Shaw said: “… call their (pa)rents … if mom is hot then f— her … if dad is hot then handcuff him and make him suck my d—,” according to O’Connell’s letter.
Shaw continued, “Unless daddy is black. … Then shoot him.”
Shaw declined to comment on Friday when reached through Facebook. His attorney, Mike Burns, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
O’Connell told Evans that prosecutors found the Facebook messages while screening a case for possible criminal prosecution against Shaw.
Shaw was under investigation for allegedly interfering in the sexual abuse probe of the Louisville Metro Police’s Explorer program, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the case.
“There is no place in police departments for men or women who hold such strongly held prejudices, including recommending shooting people simply because of their race,” O’Connell wrote.
The LMPD recruit was not named. The recruit sent racist responses to Shaw as well, according to O’Connell’s letter.
LMPD Chief Conrad said the recruit was employed by the department from Oct. 17, 2016 until he resigned on Feb. 27, 2017.
“I am disgusted by the shocking and appalling statements released today – between the former Prospect Assistant Chief of Police Todd Shaw, and a former LMPD recruit,” Conrad said in a statement.
For full story visit: http://www.wdrb.com/story/37305301/prospect-assistant-police-chief-told-lmpd-recruit-to-shoot-black-people